All the good deeds of Jaitley towards the Family seem to have been ignored as Rahul tears into the FM

Health challenged Finance Minister (FM) Arun Jaitley is being taken to the cleaners by the Congress President Rahul Gandhi. This all-out offensive must be a lesson to Jaitley and all in the BJP who are reticent about attacking the almost-but-never-the-first Family of India (Family). Arun Jaitley is widely seen as a go-between with the Family and has, in the past, ensured that any attack on them was well and properly diluted. Take the case of National Herald – Jaitley dubiously comes out in an interview with Barkha Dutt and states that the case will be over, if that Rs.90 crores loan is given back[1]. How can a Finance Minister blabber like this when the Courts, as well as Income Tax, were seized of the case? Was he trying to give a “message” to the Income Tax sleuths?

Jaitley and the DDCA

The header photo says it all. Jaitley’s major weakness was and is Delhi’s cricket affairs. It is a known fact that without Sonia Gandhi’s blessings, he can’t continue even for a minute in the Delhi Cricket Association which is popularly known as DDCA (Delhi District Cricket Association). Jaitley was controlling this powerful cricket body for the past two decades and now his buddy Rajat Sharma is in charge of this coveted body. These politicians literally kicked out iconic cricketer Bishan Singh Bedi and BJP’s suspended MP Kirti Azad, who was a member of 1983 World Cup winning squad.

See how Jaitley’s kid-gloves approach to the Family has come to. Ingrate Rahul Gandhi has not missed a chance to kick the FM on fugitive Vijay Mallya’s allegations. The Family goes for the jugular when they are cornered and do not let the minions or deal makers do the dirty work. As a Finance Minister, he has been accused of diluting many cases related to anti-corruption, which was the prime reason BJP got an absolute majority in 2014. All this “karuna” shown to the Family and nothing in return!

It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mistake for accommodating Jaitley who managed to lose a safe Lok Sabha seat that has been with BJP for many years. Add to that Modi allotted plum posts like Defence, Information and Broadcasting, apart from the Finance and Corporate Affairs Ministry. The basic problem with Jaitley is that he is always an advocate of the Bombay Club, controlled by Tata, the Ambanis and Essar. Jaitley has the bad habit of jumping straight into the Defense side of arguments, despite being on the side of Prosecution! It is still a wonder why the Prime Minister allowed an unwell Jaitley who has a danger of infection back in the Finance Ministry. It is a complete surprise because Piyush Goyal was doing a competent job in the Finance Ministry and undoing several mistakes in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and was taking positive measures and responding well to people’s demands.

Sonia Gandhi and the Agusta Westland deal

One more glaring instance of Jaitley’s understanding with the Family must be told. In April 2016, in the Rajya Sabha, Subramanian Swamy was supposed to lead the debate on Agusta Helicopter scam involving Sonia Gandhi. But mysteriously, when the debate started, a political novice, BJP’s Bhupender Yadav started initiating the debate and wasted 20 minutes without uttering the word “Sonia Gandhi”! That day Jaitley was not present in the House as if he wanted to distance himself from the attack of Swamy on Sonia. After Yadav’s boring speech, Swamy got a chance to speak and it was a full frontal assault on Sonia Gandhi, a rarity in the Indian Parliament[2].

After a few days, the issue was debated in Lok Sabha and non-member Jaitley was present, as a Minister. Sonia Gandhi was also present. Why was Sonia present? Because she got an assurance that a Rajya Sabha- like attack was not going to happen. It is a shame that BJP with an absolute majority in Lok Sabha never attacked Sonia Gandhi on Agusta issue in the lower house! This has the signature of Jaitley written all over it.

We have seen Jaitley’s dirty games in Aircel-Maxis to help his buddy Chidambaram. We also have seen the reports of Jaitley’s daughter being a legal retainer of fugitive Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi firm[3]. As per Jaitley’s admission, they received some fees and that was later returned in December 2017! Due to his immense clout in the media, Jaitley has managed to hush up the matter and Congress also did not rake it up. But now Congress is getting desperate and will not miss any chance to attack the government and Jaitley keeps providing ammunition.

I don’t know if Jaitley or his family members ever held a legal retainership of Vijay Mallya and his firms. But it is a fact that it was Jaitley, who as BJP’s Karnataka in-charge helped Mallya to enter Rajya Sabha again after he ended his Congress-supported term. It is a known fact that Vijay Mallya and Jaitley have good relations. Otherwise, the State Bank of Indian (SBI) and the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) like Public Sector Banks would have put Mallya in jail by 2015.

Jaitley owes an answer to the nation on this – Were complainant banks aware that Vijay Mallya’s Look Out Notice by CBI was diluted? It is easily seen that the CBI must have done it after the Banks’ message that they can manage settlement with him. The then pliable CBI Director Anil Sinha who wasted two years in Aircel-Maxis case was totally under the control of Arun Jaitley. This is a known fact.

We all know that it was after PM Modi gave strong instructions that the CBI under new Director Alok Verma started acting against the corrupt Chidambaram clan.

Arun Jaitley must remember that the Family ensured his defeat in 2014 by putting up a strong candidate and now is being mercilessly attacked by Rahul Gandhi. All his good deeds towards the Family have done him no good.

References:

[1] National Herald ‘prima facie a strong case, income tax inquiry on’ – Arun Jaitley to NDTV – Aug 5, 2014, NDTV.com

[2] Shri Subramanian Swamy’s speech during discussion on AgustaWestland deal – Apr 5, 2016, Bharatiya Janata Party Channel on YouTube

[3] Arun Jaitley must speak on the tainted firm Gitanjali Gems of the PNB Scam engaging daughter’s legal firm – Mar 18, 2018, PGurus.com