BJP MP and lawyer Ram Jethmalani, who has been sent a show cause notice by the party leaders for his statements against party president Nitin Gadkari and other party leaders, said that he was too busy to reply to the notice and had written a letter seeking more time than the allocated ten days.
Jethmalani today said he had learnt of the show cause notice being issued against him by the party through the media and he had not received it yet.
I have not received the notice from the BJP yet. Without reading it I cannot say what my response will be....If there is something worthwhile in the notice then I will reply, else I will tear it up and throw it, Jethmalani told reporters today.
Suspended BJP MP Ram Jethmalani on Monday adopted a dismissive stance towards the show cause notice issued to him by the party asking why he should not be expelled and said he is too busy with his law practice to answer such documents.
I have only heard about it (the show cause notice) from the media this evening. I have not read the great document which is coming to me. When I receive this document and I read it, I will tell you what I can do, I am too busy a lawyer to reply to any document within 10 years, Jethmalani told reporters on Monday.
Ram Jethmalani is in many ways a crotchety old man who has an unerring instinct for landing himself in controversies. His keen legal mind has been deployed on countless occasions to defend the seemingly indefensible and the politically incorrect in high-profile cases, and some of his clients - from Rajiv Gandhi's assassins to smuggler Haji Mastan to stock market scamsters Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parekh to Jessica Lall's murderer Manu Sharma - would make for a virtual Rogues' Gallery by themselves.
And although Jethmalani commands a well-earned reputation as inarguably one of India's best - and best-paid! - lawyers with equal felicity in civil, criminal and constitutional cases, it is at the cusp of power politics that he is in his natural elements. There too, he brings a feisty, combative spirit that doesn't readily abide by the rules of the game: and,of course, the cardinal rule of that power game is that you don't go after your own team leader. My party, right or wrong, is the motto of politics, but it is one that Jethmalani has chosen pointedly to ignore.
In that sense, it was entirely in character for Jethmalani to speak out against his own party, the BJP, for its feckless defence of its president Nitin Gadkari for clinging on to his post despite overwhelming evidence that his business empire, which passes for a social entrepreneurship venture, profited unduly from his political connections. In particular, the charges against Gadkari have forced the BJP on the political defensive at precisely the moment when the party was well-positioned to take on the Congress following damning evidence that Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra built his real estate business by leveraging his political clout, such as it is.
Patna: After supporting Ram Jethmalani and Yashwant Sinha's demand of resignation by Nitin Gadkari as BJP chief, party leader Shatrughan Sinha today sided with Jethmalani again on appointment of Ranjit Sinha as new CBI director, saying there was no ground to initiate disciplinary action against the lawyer-turned politician.
Ranjit Sinha's appointment as new CBI director has been done in a fair and transparent manner...any controversy over the issue is baseless, said Shatrughan Sinha, BJP Lok Sabha MP from Patna Sahib
New Delhi: Ram Jethmalani may have been temporarily silenced by a swift RSS initiated retaliatory action but the voices of concern in the BJP against their own party president are growing. What could make Gadkari's Nagpur based patrons feel the heat is that some of those who are deeply aggrieved at the turn of events are from the RSS background and have done long years of service in the Sangh Parivar and the BJP.
An RSS worker since childhood and BJP National Executive committee member, Jagdish Shettigar admitted in an exclusive interview with Firstpost that the questionable sources of funding around Gadkari promoted Purti Group has damaged the party's image and as a true swayamsewak, Gadkariji should introspect and take a decision as per his conscience and in the party's interest. In other words, Shettihgar is clearly asking Gadkari to resign but would not say in as many words because he is bound by party discipline.
Responding to a question on how much the Purti controversy has dented the BJP's image, Shettigar said: There is no doubt about that. It has hurt the image of our party in public's mind. I don't have any proof because I have not gone into the details. In politics public perception is very important because it gets tested in very next election. For us the next elections are very important.
Outspoken BJP leader Ram Jethmalani who stirred up a hornets nest this morning, by hinting that he was not alone in wanting BJP President Nitin Gadkari to resign, just addressed a press conference and reiterated his demands that Gadkari should resign, and said that senior BJP leaders were 'on the same wavelength' as he was.
Speaking to journalists in Delhi, Mr Jethmalani said that he had been in touch with Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha who seemed to be on the same wavelength as he was. Of course I don't presume to know what they will say or how they will act today or tomorrow, he said.
