Kirti Azad suspended, twitter asks ‘does anti-corruption equal anti-party activities for BJP?’

By
JKR Staff
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The BJP on Wednesday suspended its MP from Darbhanga, Kirti Azad, for what it called anti-party activities.

The cricketer-turned-politician has been passionately raising the issue of rampant corruption in the DDCA including the period when Arun Jaitley, the finance minister in the BJP-led government, was the president of the cricket body.

The statement from the party in Hindi read, “You are being suspended from the party for anti-party activities.”

Reacting to the decision Azad told reporters in Ahmedabad, “I raising corruption issue has now become anti-party activities. I’ve always supported Prime Minister’s slogan ‘na khaaoonga na khaane dunga. This is BJP’s misfortune that they have suspended me. Now you will see what happens. Just wait and watch.”

He said he had always lived a life with high moral values adding that the real fun will begin now.

BJP MP Babul Supriyo said that Azad had breached party’s line of discipline by continuously targeting Jaitley.

He told ABP News, “This has nothing to do with corruption. If you are member of the party, you need to conduct yourself with some responsibility. His tweets against Jaitley ji was unacceptable for the party.”

Azad, who was the member of India’s 1983 World Cup winning cricket team, has been demanding a thorough probe into the matter to fix the responsibility.

Azad was reportedly persuaded by the BJP chief Amit Shah to not go ahead with his much-publicised expose on Sunday, when he released a video of a DDCA AGM held in 2012, where he was seen accusing Jaitley of forging documents.

It’s this expose that appears to have done the most damage to the credibility of the saffron party. Jaitley is considered to be the second most powerful minister after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the party is getting increasingly nervous over the dent caused by corruption allegations to his reputation.

The Aam Aadmi Party, which too has been demanding his resignation, on Wednesday, held huge protests in central Delhi renewing their demand for his ouster from Modi’s cabinet.

Jaitley on Monday had filed a defamation suit of Rs 10 crore against six people including Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Azad had again ridiculed Jaitley for not naming him in the defamation suit.

On Wednesday, another BJP MP from Bihar, Shatrughan Sinha, too had thrown his weight behind his party colleague asking Jaitley to follow the path of LK Advani, who had resigned voluntarily after the allegations against him surfaced in Hawala case.

Azad’s suspension has triggered a huge twitter conversation, with most users ridiculing the BJP’s decision:

Here are some examples;