Modi defends Jaitley in DDCA case

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday backed Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, saying the latter will come out “with flying colours” due to “wrong and manufactured” allegations levelled against him in the DDCA case in the same manner as patriarch L K Advani had emerged unscathed in the Hawala case.

But, in his address to the BJP parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday morning, Modi did not mention about party MP Kirti Azad, who had challenged Jaitley to file a defamation case against him as he did against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP leaders in a Delhi court.

After the meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters: “The prime minister gave the example of L K Advani. The government at that time had tried to implicate him in the Hawala case. Advani came through with flying colours”.

Advani and Jaitley were sharing the dais when Modi came up with his defence of the finance minister. The Congress said Modi has signalled that Jaitley should quit from his post till the time he is absolved of all the charges as Advani had done when he faced allegations in Hawala case. “I will remind Jaitley that Advani had then resigned and had not come back till he got clean chit from the Supreme Court. So the prime minister seems to be telling Jaitley that he should not continue as finance minister till he gets cleared,” Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters.