Congress leader and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh on Saturday wondered why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley are silent on filing an appeal in the Supreme Court against the acquittal of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case.
“I want to remind the people who are asking the Karnataka government to appeal that the original petitioners are BJP leaders. Why are they using Karnataka government to shoot?” Mr. Ramesh told presspersons at the party office here.
BJP leaders, including Subramanian Swamy, have to make their stance clear on the issue, he said. “What is Mr. Modi’s view on this? What does Mr. Jaitley have to say on this?” he said.
‘Internal contradictions’
The Congress leader said primary petitioners in this case must come out and the “internal contradictions” in the BJP must be resolved. “Mr. Modi and Mr. Jaitley have a view on everything under the sun, but on this, they are quiet,” he said, adding that the AIADMK has 11 MPs in the Rajya Sabha where BJP lacks majority.
Mr. Ramesh said Karnataka is the sole prosecuting agency in the case, and has the authority to file an appeal in the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the State government is yet to take a decision on the issue, even as Special Public Prosecutor B.V. Acharya has advised filing an appeal. Karnataka has three month’s time to decide on the issue of appeal.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah maintained that the State government has nothing to do with either the DMK or the AIADMK and it will take a “legal decision” on filing the appeal in the apex court.