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Swamy tells Mahajan to go ahead and sue Jaya for defamation

Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy has asked senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pramod Mahajan to be "courageous and mature enough" to request the prime minister to order a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into J Jayalalitha's allegation that hefty bribes had been received for the transfer of Enforcement Director M K Bezbaruah, to clear his name rather than threaten the All India Anna DMK leader Jayalalitha with legal action.

Dr Swamy, who has openly demanded that the AIADMK front withdraw support to the BJP-led government, claimed that defamation cases have become the first refuge for the corrupt to harass public spirited leaders.

Nothing stopped Mahajan from filing a defamation case even now, since he had identified himself as the widely perceived target of Jayalalitha's accusation, Dr Swamy said.

The Janata Party leader's statement comes in the wake of Mahajan's challenge to Jayalalitha at a press conference in Delhi on Thusrday to name him for bribe-taking so that he can sue her for defamation.

According to Dr Swamy, the BJP leader's statement "is not only laughable, but self-condemnatory also".

If Mahajan was genuinely aggrieved and felt defamed by Jayalalitha's remarks, he should have asked the prime minister to agree to her demand for a CBI probe into the issue, he said.

Jayalalitha is yet to react to Mahajan's statement.

Dr Swamy said Mahajan should have also urged the Centre to bring out a white paper to reveal the file notings on Bezbaruah's transfer to prove that it was above board.

The fact that Mahajan was stoutly defending Bezbaruah's transfer and vehemently opposing a probe on the plea of lack of proof, clearly suggested that he had something to hide, Dr Swamy alleged.

The government was duty bound to investigate a complaint and inform the complainant about the result of the investigation under our criminal jurisprudence, he claimed.

He recalled that Prime Minister Vajpayee himself, when he was leader of the Opposition, had expressed apprehensions about the same newspaper baron and his attempt to influence the bureaucracy. Did Vajpayee not have proof, he asked.

For what reason is the same media baron being defended by Mahajan, Dr Swamy wondered.

Such "180 degree somersaults" always invites adverse inferences about motives and considerations, he said.

UNI

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