Jaitley will come out with flying colours in DDCA row: PM

Likens him to Advani, who was charged but later acquitted in a hawala scam

Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at a weekly meeting of the BJP parliamentary party and likened Jaitley to former Bharatiya Janata Party President and stalwart LK Advani who was chargesheeted but later acquitted in the 1990s hawala scam.

This was the PM's first reaction on the latest crisis to hit his government. To MPs, Modi reportedly said Jaitley would come out "with flying colours" in the Delhi cricket body controversy just as Advani had emerged unscathed. But there is a difference. Advani had resigned.

"The day allegations were raised against me based on the Jain diaries, that evening itself, sitting in my house in Pandara Road I took the decision to resign (as MP). It was no one else's decision, it was mine. Soon after I called up (Atal Bihari) Vajapyee to inform him of my decision. He asked me not to resign but I did not listen to anyone," Advani told interviewers earlier this year.

He resigned from the Lok Sabha in 1996 following a CBI chargesheet that listed him among others, who had taken a bribeof Rs 35 lakh from purported hawala traders. "People vote for us in elections. So commitment to the people is most important," he added. The context at that time was the charge of corruption against Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje Scindia.

At the meeting today Narendra Modi was categorical about Jaitley's innocence. "No one has any doubt about his honesty and integrity. The allegations against him are baseless," PM Modi said about Jaitley, who has dragged leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, to court over their allegations against him of corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), which he headed for 13 years.

PM Modi's remarks come six days after AAP first made the allegations and there has been speculation on why the BJP's top leadership had not rushed to support Jaitley, though other ministers have rallied around him. Last night, BJP president Amit Shah defended him in a public statement. A bevy of union ministers flanked Jaitley when he went to file the defamation case in the Patiala House court.

However, CPI M MP Sitaram Yechury was the first to react. "By drawing a parallel with Advani, the Prime Minister is giving a hint to Arun Jaitley that he should resign, get himself cleared and come back. I read it as a signal to Jaitley that you also do the same thing", Yechury told reporters.

Noting that Advani had resigned after the Hawala scam, he said that Jaitley should understand that the Prime Minister has suddenly remembered the veteran leader when the Finance Minister was facing a problem. Soon after Advani was named in the chargesheet, he announced he would not enter Parliament till he was exonerated. Jaitley's party colleague Kirti Azad who made some offensive remarks about the Finance Minister on social media only to deny them later and say that his account had been hacked, was not present at the parliamentary party meeting amid buzz that the party leadership is likely to take action against him after the winter session of Parliament which ends tomorrow.

BJP leader from Bihar, Sushil Modi has already publicly sought action against Azad. If this demand is accepted and action is initiated against Azad, that will be the signal that the party and the PM are standing behind Jaitley.