Late on Monday evening, BJP president Amit Shah issued a statement defending Arun Jaitley, saying the party would stand united to defeat any conspiracy to malign his reputation. “Mr. Jaitley’s public life has been one of high principles. The BJP will not allow AAP’s conspiracy to malign him to succeed,” Mr. Shah said.
The statement attacked the Aam Aadmi Party but did not mention the BJP’s own MP Kirti Azad, who has dared Mr. Jaitley to file a defamation case against him after his press conference.
The party has held back from naming Mr. Azad till now, even though Union ministers M. Venkaiah Naidu and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi hinted at “action” at the party-level.
“Have patience,” said a party insider close to Mr. Amit Shah. Asked whether patience meant days or weeks, the BJP leader said, “Patience knows no limits.”
Recently, when Mr. Jaitley was asked why his party had not taken any action against its own MP, who had been raising the issue of malfeasance in the DDCA for years, he had replied, “That’s a good question addressed to the wrong man.”
No action yet
Till late on Monday evening, however, the party had not instituted any action against Mr. Azad.
Asked by a TV channel, Mr. Azad wondered why action would be taken against him for “fighting corruption”. He also added, while calling Mr. Jaitley his “leader”, “I am talking about the then president of DDCA and not the present Finance Minister. You are putting two and two together.”
Published - December 21, 2015 11:05 pm IST
