December 23, 2015
NEW DELHI – BJP MP Kirti Azad said on Wednesday that it was unfortunate he had been suspended by his party for “speaking the truth” about corruption in Delhi’s cricket body while “threatening” to make “more revelations” in the coming days.
December 23, 2015
NEW DELHI – BJP MP Kirti Azad said on Wednesday that it was unfortunate he had been suspended by his party for “speaking the truth” about corruption in Delhi’s cricket body while “threatening” to make “more revelations” in the coming days.
“What anti-party activity have I done?” the three-time Lok Sabha member from Darbhanga in Bihar asked as journalists sought his reaction after the BJP announced his suspension for anti-party activities.
He said he had never targeted finance minister Arun Jaitley, who for years headed the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), “although much of the wrongdoing took place during his tenure”.
Jaitley headed the DDCA for over a decade until 2013.
Earlier in the day, the BJP suspended the Darbhanga MP and former cricketer for “anti-party activities”. The party has charged Azad with colluding with Congress and AAP to embarass the party and said that his action has lowered party’s prestige and its office-bearers.
Azad also “threatened” to make “more revelations” in the coming days and said he didn’t expect the party “to stoop so low” by acting against him for “speaking against corruption”.
“Wait and watch what I do next. Now I will tell everyone,” he said, adding he will move the party’s ‘margdarshak mandal’ which has party veterans like L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi to ask if the party suspends someone for speaking against corruption in Delhi’s cricket body.
“I am really very saddened. I never though that BJP would stoop to that level that a person who had joined them from an illustrious Congress family is suspended for fighting corruption,” he said.
“I will go to the ‘margdarshak mandal’ and ask them that if a person speaks against corruption does the party crucify such a person and suspend him,” Azad told PTI when asked about his next move.
Questioning his suspension, Azad said the party did not follow the due process and also did not serve a show cause notice before taking such an action against a Member of Parliament.
“The due process has not been followed. They did not serve a show cause notice. If you have to suspend an MP, you have to move the Parliamentary Board. Did you do that? How can they violate the very own laws that have been made by us,” he questioned.
Terming the charges leveled against him as “laughable”, he rejected that he “colluded” with Opposition in attacking senior party leaders like Arun Jaitley and said it is the Opposition which has picked up the issues raised by him for the last nine years.
“Who said I have teamed up? This issue I have been raising is very old, I haven’t teamed up with the Opposition. It is a matter of regret that Opposition has picked up the issue which I was raising,” he said.
“Now you see and look at the Opposition, how they will have them. They will use my name and attack. My party gave it to them on the platter, not me,” he said, adding that those who have suspended him for raising a voice against corruption have “defamed” the Prime Minister.
He added that he is yet to get any letter and asked, “Which letter? I have not received any letter yet. I have just reached Ahmedabad. I will see.”
Azad said he felt “let down” by the party as the man against whom he raised charges did not put up a defamation case against him, but the party for which he has fought for all these years has served him a show cause.
On whether Jaitley was behind his suspension, he claimed, “He was putting pressure, I knew it from everyone.”
Claiming himself to be a man who honestly worked for the party and had an opportunity to become a Union minister when his father was the chief minister, who did not allow so, he said, “If party suspends me, it is unfortunate for the party.”
He said he has been raising the issue of corruption in DDCA for nine years but “they did not listen to me. If anyone is responsible for this, it is the party itself”.
“This is the reason why such a situation has risen. I have not said anything against the party. I have said that I support the Prime Minister on his statement that ‘na khaunga na khane dunga’ (Neither will I do corruption, not allow it to happen),” he said.
Azad had defied party chief Amit Shah’s whip and held a press conference on Sunday and alleged massive corruption in the affairs of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA).
Immediately after Azad’s press conference, the Aam Aadmi Party again demanded Jaitley’s resignation from the cabinet. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal also announced that he would set up a Commission of Inquiry to probe the DDCA affairs.
Before Wednesday’s action by the BJP, there had been mixed reactions to Azad’s defiance with Sushil Kumar Modi demanding disciplinary action against the former on the one hand and another party MP, Shatrughan Sinha calling Azad a “hero”.
On Tuesday, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi had tweeted that “Bjp should take disciplinary action against Kirti Azad & some other MP’s for embarrassing party & playing in the hands of opposition.”
A day later, on Wednesday, though, Shatrughan Sinha described Azad as a “hero”. “Kirti Azad-hero of the day,” the outspoken actor-turned-politician tweeted.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had defended the finance minister, saying that Jaitley would come out of the DDCA row with flying colours.
Courtesy: IANS & PTI
