BJP suspends Jethmalani

NEW DELHI: Reacting to Ram Jethmalani's constant diatribe against party chief Nitin Gadkari, the BJP on Sunday suspended the eminent lawyer from its membership, referring his case to the party's parliamentary board which is empowered to expel the Rajya Sabha MP. His suspension came hours after he openly said that the party did not have the courage to take action against him. The parliamentary board will meet at 4.30 pm on Monday. Announcing the decision, BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said Jethmalani was guilty of indiscipline and was helping Congress with his statements. After demanding Gadkari's resignation over the issue of financial irregularities involving his firm, Jethmalani had on Saturday attacked the party for opposing the appointment of IPS officer Ranjit Sinha as the new CBI director.

"If there is any action taken against me, I will welcome it but I don't think anyone has the guts to take any action against me," Jethmalani had said.

Party sources said the move to suspend Jethmalani was also meant to send a clear message to others that the leadership was not in a mood to brook any waywardness.

Actor-turned MP from Patna Sahib Shatrughan Sinha has joined Jethmalani and Yashwant Sinha in demanding the resignation of Gadkari, saying the issue raised by them should be looked at seriously.

Earlier in the day, leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley denied that BJP's protest against the CBI director was "person-specific". Instead, he said, the BJP had opposed the appointment as it was concerned about the need for institutional reforms in the country.

"If somebody deliberately tries to misunderstand this fact then he is being more than unfair," Jaitley said in what appeared to be a riposte to Jethmalani's comments.

Jaitley, along with leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Shushma Swaraj, had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying the appointment of new CBI director Ranjit Sinha should not have been done when the Rajya Sabha select committee had recommended that such appointments should be done through a collegium.

However, the PM said in his reply, "Insinuation that the appointment was made to preempt the procedure recommended by the select Committee is wholly unwarranted and devoid of any merit."

Jaitley further said, "The experience in relation to the functioning of CBI over the last few years has been extremely disappointing. The fact that the select committee was absolutely unanimous that a collegium of prime minister, leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India would appoint CBI director, this itself is a very significant institutional reform."

He added, "Sushmaji and I had therefore suggested to the prime minister that once this has been unanimously recommended, the government ought to have waited for a few days. Heaven does not fall if the post is vacant for four or five days."

Speaking on the allegations of corruption against Gadkari, Jaitley said, "Our party president has already said that the allegations should be probed, the probe is going on and to make any other statement at this stage will not be proper. However, in Congress, those who face allegations of corruption are not ready even to face probe."