Family isn't immunity from graft charges: Arun Jaitley's repartee to Digvijaya Singh

New Delhi: A day after Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh told NDTV that his party stuck to the ethics of not targetting family members of opposition leaders, the BJP's Arun Jaitley has dismissed this as an attempt to deflect attention from corruption charges against the government and the Congress.

Mr Singh, in the context of activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal attacking Robert Vadra with allegations of illegal land deals, said that the Mr Kejriwal was crossing that line of "ethics in politics." Mr Vadra is the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and is facing charges of being linked to illicit land deals with real estate giant DLF and the Haryana government.

Speaking to NDTV, Mr Singh said, "There are ethics in politics. Never attack family. The Congress never attacked (former PM) Atal Bihar Vajpayee's son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya or (senior BJP leader) L K Advani's son and daughter. Have we ever said a word against them? They have a private life of their own."

When asked if the Congress brought their names up because there was nothing to ask of them, Mr Singh said, "We had enough evidence, but we never attacked them. Don't make me open my mouth about Ranjan Bhattacharya." During the prime ministership of Mr Vajpayee, it was often said that Mr Bhattacharya had a lot of influence over the prime minister's office and in government, despite having no official position.

Advertisement

Mr Jaitely said that the matter was not about relatives but corruption. "The issue is not that you accuse a relative or an individual. I think the issue is you talk of corruption or you don't talk of corruption. I am also somebody's relative and therefore merely if I may be accused tomorrow something, somebody is not entitled to talk about it. People in public life... should conduct themselves properly, people who are politically connected must be extra careful about these transactions and therefore to say somebody has an immunity for some reason or the other, this is not a theory that I am willing to accept."

Advertisement