New Delhi:
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today hinted at disciplinary action against Ram Jethmalani, who has disagreed with its stand on the appointment of the new Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director and earlier demanded party chief Nitin Gadkari's resignation.
"Ram Jethmalani has been making statements against the BJP president and has now spoken against the two Leaders of the Opposition (Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley). We completely deny his charges against them. The party has taken serious note of his statements and strong action will be taken at an appropriate time," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said.
"The allegations are baseless and will only help the Congress," he said.
In a letter to Mr Gadkari today, Mr Jethmalani had criticised Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley for writing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against the appointment of Ranjit Sinha as the next CBI chief.
"...I was astonished to read that the BJP has attacked the Prime Minister and the Congress for what the party calls the fast-tracked appointment of Ranjit Sinha as CBI Director," the parliamentarian said in his letter.
(Read full letter)"I regret that this criticism is a result of complete ignorance of relevant facts and has been instigated by a most undesirable rival who had to withdraw his petition before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) yesterday as a result of the appointment," Mr Jethmalani said.
His reference was to Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, who had approached CAT against the government's decision to not consider his name for the post of CBI Director.
Mrs Swaraj and Mr Jaitley wrote to the Prime Minister that the Rajya Sabha select committee on Lokpal had recommended the CBI Director's appointment by a collegium. But the Prime Minister wrote back that Mr Sinha's appointment could not be kept on hold.
Mr Jethmalani had earlier demanded that Mr Gadkari step down over charges of financial malpractices involving his Purti Group.