PIL filed in Supreme Court demanding NIA probe into 2008 secret MoU between Congress and Chinese Communist Party when Manmohan Singh was PM

A PIL has been filed in the SC demanding a NIA probe into the MoU between Congress party and the Chinese Communist Party in 2008. Though it was known that such a pact was indeed signed, the details of the pact have been kept a secret till date by the Congress. Savio Rodrigues, Editor-in-Chief of GoaChronicle and Supreme Court Advocate Shashank Shekhar Jha are the petitioners who have demanded a NIA probe into the Congress-CCP pact.

The PIL seeks investigation against Congress, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi over the pact under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act by NIA or by CBI. The petition states that despite the hostile attitude of China against India even when UPA was in power, the Congress had signed an agreement and more concerning was that the facts and details of the agreement were hidden from the people of the country. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Congress and the Indian government have been made as respondents.

The plea argues, “The petitioners firmly believe that the nation’s security cannot and shouldn’t be compromised by any one. Therefore, this petition has been moved under Article 32 of the Constitution of Bharat, which seeks to bring transparency and clarity regarding the agreement signed between the Respondent No. 1 (INC) and the Communist Party of China which is also the de-facto government of People’s Republic of China.”

Explaining the reason for filing the petition, Savio Rodrigues in a video message says that the country does not know the details of the MoU and despite several pleas to make the details of the pact public, the Congress party and its leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi have been silent on it. “India needs to know the truth and hence we have filed the PIL in SC”, says Savio Rodrigues in the message.

He also reiterates that when China is following a expansionist agenda, the Congress is towing the Chinese narrative on the recent stand-off and this attitude of the party and its leaders give raise to doubts in the minds of the people of the country. He said they hope that the SC intervention will give the answers that they seek as Congress had refused to divulge the details of the pact.

The available details in public show that the MoU was signed by the then Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on behalf of the party, and on the Chinese side it was signed by none other than Xi Jinping himself, who was then the Chinese vice-president and standing committee member of the CPC’s politburo. The MoU was signed in the presence of his mother and party president Sonia Gandhi.

Before the signing of the MoU, the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi had held a long meeting with Xi and other senior leaders of the Communist Party of China to discuss issues of mutual interest.

In 2008, Sonia Gandhi had visited Beijing along with Rahul, daughter Priyanka, son-in-law Robert Vadra and their two children to attend the opening of the Olympic Games. A year before, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had also led a delegation of the Congress party to China.