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Jethmalani wanted to preserve support in Sena, claims BJP leader

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Ram Jethmalani's stand on the Bal Thackeray arrest issue, which earned him the wrath of the Chief Justice of India on Friday and cost him his job as Union law minister on Saturday, was conceived to preserve his support in the Shiv Sena, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader claimed on Sunday.

"It was with the Shiv Sena chief's approval that Jethmalani faxed his resignation to the prime minister. He then proceeded to Pune to accept the congratulations of overjoyed Sainiks," the BJP vice-president, speaking on condition that he would not be identified, told rediff.com

He contended that "Jethmalani has earned sufficient money and fame and has little desire to cling to ministerial office. His first priority now is to consolidate whatever support he has among the Sainiks and that he has done by tendering his resignation." Jethmalani was elected to the Rajya Sabha as an Independent, with Sena support.

Delhi high court advocate Ritu Dhawan said she failed to understand why "a lawyer of Jethmalani's expertise," had stuck his neck out by making the statement that the Sena chief's controversial editorials could not be legally acted upon since three years had lapsed after they were published.

Dhawan said Jethmalani went ahead with his statement, despite knowing he could be pulled up, both legally and politically. "He did it with a flourish, knowing he could possibly be axed," she said.

His resignation assumes significance in the light of Sena Parliamentary Party leader Anant Gite's assertion earlier in the week that his party's 15 MPs would boycott the monsoon session of Parliament if the BJP-led government did not prevent Thackeray's likely arrest.

"By resigning as law minister, Jethmalani has earned our approval," Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire told rediff.com

Senior law ministry officials pointed out that Attorney General Soli Sorabjee had warned Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that by making such reckless statements, Jethmalani was not doing any service to the government.

After Chief Justice Dr A S Anand pulled up the government on Friday, saying it had abandoned the principle of collective responsibility (because of Jethmalani's controversial statement), the law minister struck back on Saturday, telling one newspaper that 'the learned Chief Justice should have realised that he was making comments about a minister who knows his law as well as anyone else.'

This rejoinder proved too much for the prime minister who asked for Jethmalani's resignation which was faxed to the Prime Minister's Office on Saturday evening from where it was forwarded to President K R Narayanan for acceptance.

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