|  | Ram Jethmalani is a senior politician and eminent lawyer. |
| Manmohan Singh’s last tango |
Prashant Bhushan has informed me categorically that Rahul is preferred as PM over Narendra Modi. To my direct question whether this is the view of the new Aam Admi Party, he avoided a clear answer. |
 |  Dr Manmohan Singh omething happened last week which has made me break my ongoing series about the effort and failure of the evolution of a composite socio-religious culture during the Mughal rule. I will revert to it next week. At this point I must digress into the happenings of Black Friday, 3 January 2014. I had expected that Sardar Manmohan Singh would salvage some self respect by a prompt resignation after the Delhi debacle of managing a paltry eight Assembly seats out of 70 in the Assembly. The city state of Delhi is not an autonomous entity like other states. Several critical administrative areas, most notably, the police, and consequently citizens' safety, and urban land are completely controlled by the Central government. The Delhi debacle was not the defeat of Sheila Dikshit alone. It was also the defeat of the national government of India. The Aam Admi Party symbolised a new formation fighting a great war against corruption. Whose corruption were they fighting? It would be perfectly reasonable to assume that it was primarily the corruption of the UPA government whose meticulously calibrated monumental scams of the last decade continue to tumble out of the closet even today, in Q4, the last quarter of their regime, with the entire Cabinet being exposed as a bunch of bandits and embezzlers in the eyes of the voters of India. Even so, the "honest" Prime Minister, himself at the centre of one of the largest scams of India, and at the periphery of another (leave aside the pettier ones, dealing with only thousands and not lakhs of crores), made it more than clear that he had no intention of leaving his seat before he had earned the dubious honour of enjoying two full terms as Prime Minister of India. I believe the Prime Minister did his last tango, and bargained for a "deal" to complete his term. A deal is a "contract" in the language of the law. A contract is not valid without a consideration, and in this case it included a promise to do something exceptional for Rahul Gandhi, in return for the latter postponing his own coronation on the sinking throne. Deep down, Rahul knows that he cannot defeat Narendra Modi and would prefer that the crown is not foisted on his reluctant head. He deliberately asked for a consideration which he thought Manmohan Singh would not pay, namely, asking him to repeat Sonia Gandhi's statement that "Modi is a murderer". Much to Rahul's disappointment, Manmohan Singh had no compunction in uttering this fiction camouflaged though in what he considered less savage language. But this fiction is not going to wash with the sensible voters of India. I am aware of the heavy pressure tactics being used on disgruntled bureaucrats and on judicial and executive agencies to involve Modi in some false murder case. These will all surely be exposed one day with appropriate retribution: "Though the mills of God grind slowly; Yet they grind exceeding small." It is my personal appeal to the Muslims of India not to get misled and deceived by this hate propaganda against Modi. Remember the deception and false promises made by the Congress to the Muslims of India, both before and after Independence. Once again, they are trying to make pawns out of you and trying their best through their dubious spokespersons to involve you in furthering this criminal conspiracy of rulers now in rapid retreat. I earnestly appeal to you to accept the advice of responsible and good Muslims and Hindus who believe in the progress of our people and country, and have stood by you at all times. Meanwhile, before your infamous exit from office, will you, Dr Manmohan Singh answer a few questions? Remember that in the government of the sovereign people of India, just as in regular judicial tribunals, precious time is never wasted on testimony, unless the person furnishing it is prepared to face and survive cross examination. On behalf of the people of India and certainly in exercise of my right as a citizen of this great Republic, I ask you the following simple questions: 1. Did you make this monstrous charge against Modi, who has become the only hope for millions in this country, on some credible evidence in your possession, or because you were induced to make it by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi their associates? 2. Do you have the courage to present your evidence to the judicial tribunals of the country or even lodge or cause to be lodged your information with any responsible investigating agency? 3. Has any court or agency taken cognizance of it? 4. Are you willing to present your evidence in a sworn affidavit and distribute its copies to all the voters of India? I am prepared to bear the cost for this, if you wish. 5. Have you consulted the Attorney General or any law office and taken their advice? 6. Are you aware that the specially constituted SIT and the courts have already rejected these ignoble efforts to subvert the judicial process and get Modi indicted somehow? 7. Nitin Gadkari, former BJP president, has publicly alleged that he has personal knowledge of a secret understanding between your Congress Party and the Aam Admi Party of a pre-election deal, kept secret from the nation, that a coalition government between the two shall come into existence only after the election, the intervening secrecy being necessary to prevent the electorate from discerning that both your parties are in reality comrades in a murky and immoral conspiracy to defeat Modi. Unlike Gadkari, I do not even suggest that I am a witness to such a conspiracy. But being a criminal lawyer of some experience, I deduce the existence of criminal conspiracies from circumstantial evidence, which is a far superior foundation for the discovery of truth than oral testimony of human witnesses. Here is that circumstantial evidence and I demand that you make a credible refutation of. Circumstance No. 1: Prashant Bhushan, an old friend, whose veracity and sincerity I hold in high esteem, has informed me categorically that Rahul is preferred as Prime Minister over Modi. Circumstance No. 2: To my direct question whether this is the view of the new Aam Admi Party, he avoided a clear answer. Circumstance No. 3: In spite of my being an expelled member of the BJP (which I have challenged in court), I wrote a letter on 21.10.2013 to Arvind Kejriwal informing him that a founder member of AAP had made this astounding statement to me, and requesting him to let me know whether this was the settled political decision of the Party. Circumstance No. 4: Kejriwal neither replied to me nor issued any clarification to the voters. After a reminder from me, he deputed two of his trusted party men to call on me, and convince me that this was not the party view or decision, that after the Delhi elections they would discuss with me how not to divide the anti corruption vote, and lastly that a coalition with Congress was impossible under any circumstances. Circumstance No. 5: This was a device to prevent me from suspecting the diabolic scheme and gigantic deception of the people, and of me too. Circumstance No. 6: After the AAP decides to have a coalition with the very party whose corruption they pretended to target, the dynasty managed to get an anti-Modi criminal libel from you. (Kejriwal has certainly contributed a most original and innovative paradigm to political science, how to wage a war against corruption while in league with the corrupt.) Circumstance No. 7: You would be aware that my colleagues and I have moved the Hon'ble Supreme Court to hold you in contempt for not disclosing, publicly or privately, the names of the dacoits who have secret bank accounts in off-shore tax havens, in defiance of the orders of the Supreme Court of India. Have you in your conspiracy with the AAP stopped them from demanding disclosure regarding this gargantuan economic crime against the nation, or will you now comply voluntarily? So I must state that what Gadkari claims to know was known to me too, but through a somewhat different route. |
http://www.sunday-guardian.com/analysis/manmohan-singhs-last-tango