DDCA scam: Arun Jaitley can’t use party as shield, says Kirti Azad

A day after the BJP issued a show-cause notice to its suspended MP, Mr Kirti Azad, asking him why he should not be expelled, the Darbhanga MP on Friday attacked Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, saying he cannot use the shield of party discipline as the Delhi cricket body issue has no link to the BJP.

Asserting that corruption in the DDCA has nothing to do with the BJP, and that he had not named anyone, Mr Azad, in his reply to the BJP, has urged the party leadership to “terminate the proposed disciplinary proceedings against me so that I may resume work as a proud member and MP of BJP”. He said he had been raising the issue for the past nine years and the BJP had never asked him not to pursue it. In his reply he also said that the BJP had not deputed Mr Jaitley to head the DDCA.

In an apparent reference to previous BJP chiefs, the letter says: “All three respected party presidents also realised that cricket had no connection with our party activities and Jaitley’s role in DDCA was his own concern.”

A combative Mr Azad said, “Not one office-bearer apart from Jaitley has reason to feel aggrieved by my or the cricketers’ (Bishen Bedi and others) complaints of wrongdoing in DDCA... Humbly, I do not understand how an individual who has chosen to involve himself in activities that have no connection with the party can later claim the shield of party discipline when instances of wrongdoing in that body are raised and proved.”

He later tweeted that with the reply to the notice he had also sent four CDs and six sets of files regarding alleged corruption in the DDCA.

He noted that when he had met BJP president Amit Shah and general secretary (organisation) Ramlal, he had taken up all these issues, and also that his fight against corruption in the DDCA had nothing to do with the party.

Mr Azad also mentions that he had told Mr Shah: “In case he (Jaitley) chose to be the DDCA president, he was opening himself to all associated risks that are entitled in running an organisation and that he could not claim the shield of party position if he got implicated in any mismanagement, fraud and irregularity.”

He also told Mr Shah that he was willing to give all documents regarding “corruption in DDCA” in a joint meeting with Mr Jaitley, but neither Mr Shah nor Mr Ramlal got back to him. “Since neither called back I assumed that a cricketing matter had no relation with any party activity and that I would be well within the norms of discipline if I did not name anybody in the party. I did not name Jaitley or any party person,” he says in his reply while justifying his decision to hold a press conference.

Refuting the party’s charge that he was involved in “anti-party” activities, the three-term MP from Darbhanga said, “I have never outside the party forum alleged that our partymen are involved in corrupt activities. The inference of Jaitley that he has been specifically targeted by me is therefore untrue and misplaced.”

The show-cause notice also said that he spoke in the Lok Sabha on the issue after being encouraged by Congress members, a charge he denied in his reply, saying he spoke only after the Speaker asked him to and that he merely demanded a time-bound CBI probe.

Rejecting charges that he had made anti-party remarks after the Delhi and Bihar Assembly elections, Mr Azad said, “Send me a copy of any media report to support the contention that I had defamed the party. After the Bihar election in November I did not raise any issue and in an interview I took responsibility for the loss in my constituency... I maintained that the Prime Minister and central leadership could not be held responsible for the loss since all local leaders had failed to communicate the schemes and achievements of the Central government.”