Digvijaya to his defence as BJP takes on Katju

BJP leaders on Monday competed with each other to take potshots at Press Council of India chief Markandey Katju for his adverse comments on Gujarat CM Narendra Modi.

Party spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy trained his guns on Katju at a press conference in the morning, BJP's deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad mounted another charge after the core group meeting in the evening.

Katju's "unwarranted" remarks against Modi were discussed at the core group meeting. "The BJP's opinion is that a person sitting in quasi-judicial position should refrain from making political statements. They cannot become a conduit for political propaganda... We will see how to raise this in Parliament," Prasad said.

Rudy described Katju as a "vagabond" making "unsolicited comments" against non-Congress governments and suggested him to quit if he wished to join politics.

Rajya Sabha MP and editor of the party's mouthpiece, Kamal Sandesh, Prabhat Jha wrote to the President, requesting him to take a "serious" cognizance of Katju's "condemnable" remarks.

BJP chief Rajnath Singh hinted that Modi will play an "important role" in the 2014 general elections. Rudy, in this backdrop, welcomed Muslim cleric and Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind leader Mahmood Madani's 'positive' remarks regarding Modi, saying "we hope minorities will take a note" of it.

Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh came to Katju's defence, saying the retired judge had always been impartial, and wondered whether Arun Jaitley was reacting in this manner because he "owed" his RS seat to Modi.

"I think Jaitley should not comment like this. It is unbecoming of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha. Why did he keep quiet when Katju brought out issues against the CMs of Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh, against the Home Ministry in the arrest of Iftekhar Gilani? When he sort of publicly rebutted the police in the case of Delhi gangrape? He kept quiet on those occasions," Singh said. Lost in this competition to defend Modi was the fact that Jaitley took on Katju not only for his remarks against Modi but also those against Bihar government.

... contd.

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