Mahesh Jethmalani quits BJP executive citing graft against Gadkari

Mangalore Today News / NDTV

Mumbai, Nov 5: Noted lawyer and BJP leader Mahesh Jethmalani has sent a two-line resignation letter to party president Nitin Gadkari saying it would be "morally and incorrectly wrong" for him to serve in the BJP as long as Mr Gadkari is in office.

Mr Jethmalani is the son of leading lawyer and BJP Rajya Sabha MP, Ram Jethmalani, who had recently suggested that Mr Gadkari should step down. The Jethmalanis’ is the first open rebellion in a party that reportedly has many people questioning the sagacity of letting Mr Gadkari continue as the party’s head after being engulfed in corruption charges with savage effect since last month, when NDTV reported on what appear to be a matrix of ghost investors who prop up a company he co-founded in 2000. He retired as its chairman last year, and now holds about 200 shares in the firm.

 

The letter Mr Jethmalani has written to Mr Gadkari reads, "Dear Nitinji, I deem it morally and intellectually inappropriate to continue to serve on the party’s National Executive Committee as long as you are the President of the BJP. I hereby tender my resignation from the same."

The Oxford-educated lawyer said today that he does not "speak for the BJP or the RSS. This is a personal opinion that I do not want to serve in the national executive in Mr Gadkari’s term," he said, adding that he did not find the BJP president’s defense against graft charges "satisfactory".

His father, who is counted among the most outspoken members of the BJP, had said, "He (Gadkari) should not aspire for a second term because it weakens the party. We are fighting against corruption; we have to have a man of absolute impeccable integrity. In the interest of the party and in his own interest, he should get out of this fray now and make way for someone who inspires greater confidence." The RSS had dismissed the 89-year-old senior Mr Jethmalani’s views as unimportant.

BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy rebuked Mr Jethmalani today for his letter reaching the media "even before it reached the BJP." But he did not offer comment on Mr Jethmalani’s action, merely pointing out that Mr Gadkari had already explained the charges against him to the party. The senior leader said Mr Jethmalani’s view was that of an individual in a party "with the largest membership base in the world" and the party would look into it.

The BJP has said on record that Mr Gadkari will continue as its president till his term expires in December - it has also repeatedly praised Mr Gadkari for offering to assist all investigation into the corruption charges.  But within the party and its ideological mentor, the RSS, there is a growing inquietude over the allegations against its top man. The RSS has asked for an impartial probe, signalling that its support for Mr Gadkari is far from unconditional.  In 2009, it picked Mr Gadkari as the BJP president against the wishes of senior party leaders like LK Advani. In September, again under pressure from the RSS, the BJP amended its constitution to prep the ground for an unprecedented second consecutive term for Mr Gadkari. That appears unfathomable now.

BJP sources say Mr Gadkari has also survived so far because of internal politics. The Jethmalanis are believed to belong to a section of the party that wants to see Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi brought into the party’s national scene immediately. But some senior party leaders want to stave off that eventuality as best as they can - backing Mr Gadkari and allowing him to ride the storm for now suits their immediate purpose. After his many electoral successes in Gujarat - and one expected next month - Mr Modi is looked upon by many in the BJP as the man who will lead the party into the 2014 general elections. That has caused disquiet both among Mr Modi’s detractors within the party and in the National Democratic Alliance or NDA that the BJP leads, with allies like the JD(U) vociferously against Mr Modi being billed as a future Prime Minister.

The Congress-led UPA government, with uncharacteristic alacrity, has announced that the charges against Mr Gadkari and the firms that bought into Purthi Power and Sugar Limited are being investigated by income tax officials and the Corporate Affairs Ministry.  Sources say that early inquiries confirm that the investor firms have bogus directors and addresses.

But the charges being configured against Mr Gadkari and the lengthy inquiry that is likely to follow are impaling the BJP’s campaign ahead of important elections as a healthy option to the Congress, which it has accused of insuperable graft.

At a rally in Delhi yesterday, Congress President Sonia Gandhi without naming Mr Gadkari took direct aim at him.  "Those who dig trenches to bury others often find a well waiting for them," she said, making it clear that the BJP president has lost the moral authority to question her party’s credentials on clean governance.