Black money issue: Jethmalani goes after Jaitley and NDTV

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Former Union Law Minister and renowned Supreme Court lawyer Ram Jethmalani, known for his angry political outbursts, has hit out at Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for not taking enough interest is retrieving black money from foreign bank accounts. Citing the BJP’s seeming reluctance in taking action since coming into power, Jethmalani also took pot-shots at Jaitley’s apparent proximity with Congressman P Chidambaram and media conglomerate NDTV. The sharp attack on Jaitley by Jethmalani, with twelve questions in tow, comes after Jaitley appeared on NDTV and Times Now defending the government’s stand on various issues. In his Facebook post, Jethmalani says that his “contempt for this unpardonable betrayal” by the government in pursuing the issue has led to his frustration and the subsequent outburst. Stating that the money, which is “equivalent to Rupees 90 lakh crores”, Jethmalani says that as one of the petitioners to the Supreme Court on case for the retrieval of black money, he has a “moral compulsion” to pursue the issue in the public domain. He says that he had backed PM Narendra Modi “to the hilt” during the 2014 elections as he hoped that Modi would take up the issue, but he has maintained a "studied silence" since. Jethmalani asks Jaitley if he was aware of the Supreme Court verdict in the black money case during UPA’s rule and Chidmbaram’s tenure as FM. Referring to Jaitley’s “more than normal cordial relations with Chidambaram and the NDTV Management”, he asks if Jaitley had found fault in the manner in which Chidambaram conducted an investigation into the issue. Jethmalani also questions the FM with regard to only signing “Amended Double Taxation Avoidance” treaties since taking over and asks for the exact number of such pacts which have been signed upon. Pouring further scorn on Jaitley, he asks if the FM had “learnt by now” of the SC’s order to reveal the correspondence between the Indian and German governments over the Liechtenstein Bank names. The veteran lawyer says that the BJP never distanced itself from its President Amit Shah’s statement in which he called the black money issue an “election jumla”, saying, “This is confession enough of an intentional fraud on the nation”. Here are a few tweets from the 12 questions posted by Jethmalani on Twitter. Read the entire Facebook post here. Black Money:Question 2 - Did you as MP and Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha care to see whether the judgment was being followed? — Ram Jethmalani (@RamJethmalani5) April 26, 2015 Q. 3 - Are you willing to admit that socially, politically and economically you have more than normal cordial relations with Chidambaram... — Ram Jethmalani (@RamJethmalani5) April 26, 2015 and the NDTV Mgmt, and U had no ocsion whatsoever to find fault with the manr in whc Chidambaram perfmd his natnl duty to recvr Black Money? — Ram Jethmalani (@RamJethmalani5) April 26, 2015 Q 7 - Why have you not availed of the German offer to share information about the 1400 Liechtenstein Bank account holders, which the Supreme — Ram Jethmalani (@RamJethmalani5) April 26, 2015 ..Court has dealt with in Paras 64 and 65 of its judgment? This disclosure has nothing to do with the double taxation avoidance treaty. — Ram Jethmalani (@RamJethmalani5) April 26, 2015

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