Even as the BJP came out in defence of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley after he came under attack from the Aam Aadmi Party over alleged “corruption” in the DDCA under his watch, BJP MP Kirti Azad said he would address a press conference on Sunday on the “scam.”
He tweeted on Thursday evening: “Don’t go by rumours that I have been gagged, my fight is against corruption in sports and it shall continue.”
Earlier in the day, BJP’s general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal called Mr. Azad for breakfast and is believed to have asked him not to speak further on the matter. Sources said Mr. Azad told the senior BJP leader that he had taken a public stand on the DDCA years back. He was, it is believed, told not to speak further on the matter. Mr. Azad told The Hindu that it was a breakfast meeting where the DDCA matter wasn’t broached. “My fight is against corruption and under whom it happened does not matter to me,” he said. “I will talk to the press about this on Sunday.”
Asked about what he thought about a member of his own party raising the issue, Mr. Jaitley told the media in Parliament: “That is a good question being addressed to the wrong man.”
Earlier, Mr. Jaitley had said in a written statement: “Even though I am not concerned with cricket administration since 2013, a Member of Parliament has been writing to various governmental bodies with regard to Delhi’s cricket affairs. The UPA government seized upon the opportunity and referred the complaints to the SFIO which investigated all his complaints over a period of time and submitted a detailed report on 21st March 2013.”
“The report concluded in relation to the DDCA being registered under the Companies Act that “…in a nutshell there are certain irregularities/non-compliance of technical violations, but no fraud as alleged,” he added.
BJP leaders circulated the relevant page of the report, which mentions that Mr. Azad made the allegations.
