Kirti Azad has been suspended from the BJP by party President Amit Shah.
His suspension letter, according to reports, reads that he was involved in ‘anti-party’ activities. Not just that, the letter says he was colluding with the Congress and AAP and bringing disrepute to the party.
In his first reaction, Azad said it was the party’s loss, not his. When asked about his next move, he smiled and asked the media to “wait and watch”.
Speaking with CNN-IBN’s Bhupendra Chaubey over the phone, Azad made some damning allegations against Finance Minister Arun Jaitely.
In response to a question, Azad said, “Arun Jaitley wants to silence all the voices in the party that are against him”. When asked if he thinks he was suspended because Jaitley wanted him out, Azad responded in the affirmative.
The MP from Darbhanga demanded that the party tell him when and where he had committed anti-party activities, since he never spoke against the party. Azad stated that he never said that Arun Jaitley was involved in corruption.
Azad also said that while the Finance Minister himself slapped no defamation case against him, the party acted. However, Azad said that he and his family members were being targeted by the “very intelligent, very articulate Mr Jaitley”.
On being asked what transpired between him and party President Amit Shah before his press conference, Azad said,
I told Amit Shah I will not go to the media till 4 pm on Sunday. If you don’t want me to speak, you must bring both parties (him and Jaitley) face to face.
He clarified that for now, he will not move the court because he has “better things to do”.
The prime time debate on CNN-IBN for the most part had panellists accusing the BJP of not taking corruption seriously. With BJP spokesperson Shaina NC joining the discussion much later, the debate mostly stayed one-sided.
Congress leader Ajoy Kumar spoke in support of Kirti Azad. When asked why everyone was speaking out only after the CBI raid triggered Kejiwal’s reaction and was followed by Kirti Azad’s press conference, Kumar said,
Kirti Azad has been raising this matter for a while with Mr Jaitley. So either Mr Jaitley is phenomenally incompetent or hand-in-glove with those involved in this mess.
The debate briefly went out of focus when noted lawyer and former BJP member Ram Jethmalani joined it.
A visibly angry Jethmalani said, “Kirti Azad is more honest than Arun Jaitley”. He also said that since he was representing Arvind Kejriwal in the defamation case filed by Jaitley, the finance minister will have to face him in the witness box and that would be the time when Jethmalani would make his point.
BJP spokesperson Shaina NC joined the debate and stated,
Arun Jaitley has always led by example. If you publicly target our honourable minister with baseless allegations, it is for the party to decide what action to take. Questions can be raised even on a democratic platform in the party itself.
Speaking of baseless allegations, Sameer Manchanda from the NCTA Cricket Association told BJP’s Shaina NC that the NCTA is witness in the defamation case and that they would uncover truths on the lines of what Delhi CM Kejriwal has said.
Don’t take it as an empty threat when I say that we will prove every word uttered by Kejriwal as probably right.
The Times Now debate focused on whether BJP MP Kirti Azad’s suspension was inevitable.
Answering to why Yogi Adityanath, Sakshi Maharaj, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Giriraj Singh haven’t been suspended for their outrageous comments in the past, GVL Narasimha Rao, from BJP said, “We have a very high level of tolerance. If you want to embarrass the party, the party has no option but to suspend. Sakshi Maharaj has regretted his comments”.
Aam Aadmi Party, on the other hand, defended Kirti Azad saying he was just raising the issue of corruption.
Why have you expelled a man who raised the issue of corruption? Arun Jaitley singlehandedly destroyed the game of cricket in the state of Delhi.Ashish Khetan, AAP
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