Jethmalani convicts Pranab on 9 counts

On the day UPA’s presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee filed his nomination papers, senior advocate and Rajya Sabha member Ram Jethmalani launched a vitriolic attack on him and said he would campaign in support of NDA-backed candidate PA Sangma.  Recently, the senior advocate announced that he would contest the election if the opposition did not fight the battle with the UPA and but dropped out after Sangma was chosen by the NDA.

“A vote for Pranab Mukherjee is a vote against the nation,’’ he said and shot off an open letter to the UPA candidate highlighting his `political history’. In the 10-page letter, Jethmalani charged Mukherjee under nine counts and said his misdeeds began right from the days he began working as a junior minister during the days of Emergency. “As a junior minister in the cabinet then, you were party to the arrest of leaders. You were party to censorship. You were responsible for the incarceration of  two talented women, the late Maharani Gayatri Devi and Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia of Gwalior, in the Tihar jail among lunatic persons,’’ Ram Jethmalani said, adding that Pranab Mukherjee did not tell the truth before the Shaw Commission constituted by the Janata Party government to go into the excesses committed by the Indira Gandhi government during Emergency. Jethmalani said $ 1,500 billion had been stolen from this country and stashed in foreign banks.

“Hasan Ali of Pune alone was found with $ 8.6 billion. His last transaction was under the head _ arms deals. Nothing was done to attach his properties,’’ he said. The senior advocate also said that though foreign countries like Germany were ready to share the details of the accounts of Indians in their countries, the government was doing nothing on the matter.

The money, if brought to the country, would remove poverty overnight and every Indian family would get Rs 2.5 lakh, he said.

Referring to a Supreme Court judgment which ordered constitution of a two-member team to investigate the illegal stashing of money in foreign banks, Jethmalani said Pranab Mukherjee did nothing to get the team work and he should be jailed for contempt (of court). In the open letter, Jethnalani charged Pranab Mukherjee with raping the nation and installation of him (Pranab Mukherjee) would be a horrendous crime and tragedy for the nation.

Incidentally, Jethmalani is in the city to argue on behalf of Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who is arrested on charges of amassing illegal wealth during his father’s tenure as chief minister.