Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday hailed the Supreme Court verdict on the Rafale review petitions and said that it was a strong response to the Congress party’s antics to question the Centre on the defence deal.

The Home Minister said that the Congress leaders who carried out the “malicious and baseless campaign” against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government must apologise.

“The Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss the review petition on Rafale is a befitting reply to those leaders and parties who rely on malicious and baseless campaigns. Today’s decision, yet again, reaffirms Modi sarkar’s credentials as a government which is transparent and corruption free,” Shah said in a series of posts on social media platform Twitter.

Calling the Opposition’s attack on the Modi government in the Parliament a “sham”, Shah further said that the apex court has reinstated and reaffirmed the credentials of the Centre as a transparent and corruption free administration.

“Now, it has been proved that disruption of Parliament over Rafale was a sham. The time could have been better utilised for the welfare of people. After today’s rebuke from SC, Congress and its leader, for whom politics is above national interest must apologise to the nation,” the Home Minister said.

The Congress party had launched an aggressive campaign in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections against the NDA government claiming discrepancies in the multi-billion-dollar fighter jet deal with France’s Dassault Aviation for 36 aircraft.

The Opposition had also disrupted Parliament sessions in the process.

The Supreme Court today gave a clean chit to the Centre on the deal and rejected the petition for the registration of FIR by the CBI.