DDCA strom may damage Jaitly for good
By Harihar Swarup
Arun Jaitley is known to be a pragmatic leader, mature, politically sharp and a brilliant lawyer. But even a leader of his caliber sometimes miscalculates and goes on committing blunders after blunders. One wonders what was the need for the CBI to raid the office of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Principal Secretary, Rajendra Kumar. The raid was about some contracts allegedly given by Rajendra Kumar in different capacities during the Sheila Dikshit’s tenure. Kejriwal promptly threw the blame at the Finance Minister, saying: “It has become necessary to reveal that why did the CBI come to my office and which was the file they were looking for. This is the DDCA file under which Arun Jaitley is getting trapped,” he claimed.
Kejriwal was not the man to take things lightly. Aam Aadmi Party posed five questions to Jaitley relating to alleged corruption during his tenure in the Delhi and District Cricket Association. After the DDCA row, the Finance Minister was dragged in another controversy with former police officer KPS Gill writing to Delhi CM urging him to probe Jaitley’s “conflict of interest” and his role in getting his daughter appointed to the legal committee of the national hockey body. Gill’s charge came after the Delhi Assembly adopted a resolution to set up an inquiry panel to probe the alleged DDCA scam.
Both the issues reverberated in Parliament and opposition demanded Finance Minister’s resignation. Apparently provoked Jaitley sued Kejriwal and five members of the AAP for slander, hitting back over allegations of corruptions against him in running the city’s cricket body. It was quite a scene when Jaitley himself went to the Delhi Trail Court under tight security to file the criminal defamation case against Kejriwal and five AAP members for making “false and defamatory” statements about his role as the chief of DDCA. Earlier in the day, Jaitley’s lawyers lodged in Delhi High Court a civil suit against AAP leaders seeking Rs. 10 crore as damages. As the controversy took a political turn, Jethmalani jumped in the fray to defend Kejriwal in the criminal case. One doesn’t know the reason but Jethmalani is very sore with Jaitley. It will be quite a scene when Jethmalani cross-examines Jaitley.
While Parliament was disrupted over demand for Finance Minister’s resignation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a bid to defend Jaitley called FM as virtuous as LK Advani who had come under opposition attack over a hawala scandal in the 1990s but was proved innocent. As is known Advani resigned from parliament and quit his post and did not contest election till he was absolved of all charges by court.
Observers interpret it as PM’s suggestion to Jaitley that, like Advani, he should also step down; not accept any post till he is proved innocent. But the two situations are different; Advani was accused of accepting Hawala money while there is no such charge against Jaitley.
As if this was not enough, cricketer MP, Kirti Azad too highlighted alleged corruption in the DDCA which Jaitley headed for 13 years. He also raised the issue in the Lok Sabha. Azad was suspended from the BJP with the party issuing a terse statement, saying “for anti-party activities Darbhanga MP Kirti Azad is suspended with immediate effect”. BJP President Amit Shah accused him of “colluding with the opposition parties including the Congress and AAP with the sole purpose of embarrassing the party and its office bearers”. Hours before suspension, another BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha came out in support of Azad and asked Jaitley to come clean. Reacting to his suspension Azad said “I am happy that the real face of the BJP has come out though they claim to fight against corruption. Wait for my next move”.
Suspension of Azad activated the veterans who have been sidelined. They— LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha—did not issue a statement like they did on November 10 when they attacked the leadership in the wake of poll debacle in Bihar. But one of them said Azad’s ouster should have been discussed at the party forum beforehand. The procedure laid for the purpose ought to have been followed.
While it was premature to assume that veterans would seek a meeting of the Margdarshak Mandal to discuss Azad’s ouster or collectively intervene in the matter but they were not likely to be silent spectators to what was going on. Azad also found support from an unexpected quarter; Subramanian Swamy who was known to be mentoring Azad. Swamy said he would help Azad in drafting his reply to suspension notice.
Kirti proposes to meet Advani and other veteran leaders to seek their help in fighting his suspension. “The senior leaders have decided intervene in the interest of the party. I also want Prime Minister to intervene and I shall be writing to him”, Azad said. (IPA Service)