BJP veterans unhappy over suspension of Kirti Azad

“I also want the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene”, he said praising the Prime Minister’s “no-nonsense approach” towards corruption.

“Have received notice, may react to it. Subramanian Swamy has explained in creating answer the notice he can help me”, Azad informed the press on Friday.

In a related development, over 100 supporters of Azad, who was in the Indian cricket team that won the 1983 World Cup, staged a noisy protest outside the BJP headquarters here against his suspension.

Over the suspension of party MP Kirti Azad, BJP veterans who were upset met here today and authorized former president L.K. Advani to write to PM Modi to express their anguish. He used the opportunity to hit out at PM Modi.

In the meeting the BJP veterans concluded that Kirti Azad’s suspension sent a wrong message about the party trying to suppress the voice of a whistleblower.

He is the first BJP MP to be suspended since Narendra Modi became the prime minister in May a year ago.

“His MP (Kirti Azad) said that corruption took place and there should be enquiry”.

Interestingly, one of the main players in controversy, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, took a break from the issue on Thursday, instead focusing on what had earned him brownie points a few weeks ago – pollution control. Mr. Azad had said yesterday that the BJP’s Margdarshak Council (Guidance Council), consisting of the four veterans as well as Mr. Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, should look into his allegations on corruption in the DDCA.

Given his unprecedented rebellion in BJP’s history – which also included an attack on Jaitley on the floor of Parliament and through multiple posts on Twitter – it was expected that the party will wait for the Parliament’s Winter Session to be over before taking action. “What anti-party activity have I done?”

They alleged that funds from the DDCA were siphoned off to people and companies favored by Jaitley, during his tenure. “I do not stab in the back in the name of personal relationship”, said Azad, whose father Bhagwat Jha Azad, a former Congress chief minister of Bihar, had taken on the state’s cooperative mafia in the eighties.

On Monday, Azad had targeted Jaitley via twitter. Despite denials by the CBI that it never searched Kejriwal’s office and it was after his principal secretary Rajendra Kumar for corruption, the AAP leader has said that CBI officials did enter his room in search of a file on the DDCA and Jaitley. Soon after the decision, the 56-year-old Azad called it “unfortunate” and said he had honestly worked for the BJP.