Azad persists in defiance, replies to show-cause notice

He said party discipline of BJP did not cover criticism of Jaitley's tenure at DDCA

Virtually inviting expulsion from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), cricketer and BJP MP from Darbhanga Kirti Azad (pictured), who has been suspended by his party, again attacked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, saying party discipline did not cover criticism of Jaitley’s tenure in  the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA). He added that DDCA had no links with the BJP.

In a point-by-point rebuttal of the charges in the show-cause notice slapped on him by the party on Thursday, Azad said he has been pursuing the issue of “corruption” in the DDCA for the past nine years “without any let up” and was not told once by the BJP to drop the matter.

Questioning the party’s action against him, he said he did not “name Jaitley or any party person” in the issue. Moreover, he added the party did not depute Jaitley as the DDCA head. He also made an apparent reference to previous BJP chiefs, saying ,“All three respected party presidents also realised that cricket had no connection with our party activities and Jaitley’s role in DDCA was his own concern.” Azad did not name them. “Not one office-bearer apart from Jaitley has reason to feel aggrieved by my or the cricketers’ (Bishan Singh Bedi and others) complaint of wrongdoings in DDCA,” Azad said. “Humbly, I do not understand how an individual who has chosen to involve himself in activities that have no connection with the party can later claim the shield of party discipline when instances of wrongdoing in that body are raised and proved,” Azad’s reply to the show-cause notice said.

Azad said he told BJP chief Amit Shah and party general secretary Ram Lal when he was summoned by them on December 18 that Jaitley was not deputed by the BJP to be the DDCA head.

“In case he chose to be the DDCA president he was opening himself to all associated risks in running an organisation, and that he could not claim the shield of party position if he got implicated in any mismanagement, fraud and irregularity,” Azad said in his reply, while referring to the meeting.

He had told Shah that he was willing to give all documents regarding the “corruption in DDCA” in a joint meeting with Jaitley, but neither Shah nor Ram Lal had got back to him. “Since neither called back I assumed that a cricketing matter had no relation with any party activity and that I will be well within the norms of discipline if I did not name anybody in the party. I did not name Jaitley or any party person,” said Azad in his reply.

Azad’s allegations might be discussed at the meeting of the coordination committee between the BJP and the RSS that will meet later this month. At least two former presidents of the party –Murli Manohar Joshi and L K Advani – have, at a meeting among themselves voiced their concerns at the way Azad is sought to be punished by the party. That the party is persisting in its course suggests that it is not overly concerned about the anxieties of this new ginger group.