WSN Bureau
NEW DELHI: Referring to various attempts by the Government to implicate him in some case or the other, Ram Jethmalani an eminent lawyer and Rajya Sabha member has in a letter to the Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi stated that he would turn out a book on “Indian Marcos and Imelda” and the whole world would read it.
In the long letter addressed to the Prime Minister on August 20, Jethmalani referred to the Independence Day speech of the Prime Minister and said, “so you finally destroyed even the sanctity of Independence Day and polluted the hallowed sport from where the nation has for many years receive messages of inspiration and hope from great and revered souls. You in their footsteps is the measure of our national degeneration. Most people who had an option either did not switch on their television and radio sets or switched them off after a brief exposure to your innamne banalities including shameless scratching of your own back. Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and your late Mother would have been proud of your performance you claimed! I wonder how they communicated this to you. Millions think they would be ashamed of you.”
Calling him a coward, he observed, “you select for filthy abuse of your opponents places and platforms where you cannot be contradicted or questioned, House of Parliament is dominated by your professional musclemen, your own party meetings full of sycophants and your own subservient media are your choice venues. A live television debate with Y.P. Singh frightened you out of your wits. Questions you cannot answer. There are 400 of them from me which cry for an answer. But the only answer you know is abuse, vilification, lies and still more lies.
Talking of Mahatama Gandhi and Pandit Nehru, Jethmalani said that he knew something about the mind of these great men and knew where they would draw the line between treachery and treason on one side and patriotism and public duty on the other.
Taking kickbacks on defence deals, syphoning colossal amounts of public money to pay for guns that do not fire for ammunition that does not exist for helicopters that do not take off and submarines that cannot conceal their location would be treason. Exposing you aad laying bare before the nation evidence of your treason would patriotism” he said.
Jehtmalani told the Prime Minster “dismissing an honest Defence Minister who orders an inquiry on an Ambassador’s cable conveying information that the submarine deal involves a 7 percent commission agent and hushing up the investigation by employing a corrupt policeman would be treachery to the nation. Those who maintain that you and/or your protected cronies pocketed the commission would be discharging public duty.”
He said, “Those who roped and killed the innocent Nayeema, those who assassinated Safdar Hashmi and those who burnt alive 3000 Sikhs in Delhi are demolishing the foundations of national integrity and are traitors of the worst kind, Those who preach the gospal of HinduSikh unity refuse to countenacnce state terrorism as an answer and who believe that honest enforcement of criminal law is the highest duty of the state are the greatest patriots.”
Jethmalani went on, “One who is a great at sensation mongering, cooks up false conspiracies and gets innocent people involved and eyen sent to gallows, who sows permanent seeds of hatred and discord undermines the feeling of brotherhood and confidence essential for the solidarity of the nation is the foulest of traitors. He who sticks his neck out in discharge of the most glorious tradition of the bar to establish the innocence of his fellow citizens helps sustain the confidence of the common man in human rights justice and rule of law, is a true patriot.
Jethmalani said that one who had destroyed every institution of democracy only to stick to office and conceal this corruption and had mortgaged the country’s independence by making himself vulnerable to blackmail by a host of corrupt accomplices was without doubtless a traitor.
“I hope you realize Mahatama Gandhi and your grandfather would have classed you. If their spirits are around to survey the national scene they would doubtless see that the whole country has been plunged into tension and chaos. The young Chief Minister of Assam has only yesterday accused you of another act of treson. You have employed your agents in RAW to foment trouble amongst the Bodos of India, unleased violence and murder in their part of the country only to ultimately get rid of an elected government, The evidence of your conspiracy is overwhelming. This supports what T have been saying for long. You are responsible for the violence and murders in Punjab,” he told the Prime Minister.
He accused the Prime Minister of “feverishly working to create a phony emergency in this country. You will finally extinguish the democratic process because you cannot just afford to lose the elections.
Referring to the harassment to him, Jethmalani said, “ever since I put those 400 damaging questions and exposed your corruption and lies you have employed the entire might of your law enforcement agencies to involve me in some false case. My telephones are tapped. I am constantly shadowed whether here or abroad. Your Home Ministry has investigated my foreign trips and expenses. Your tax authorities have opened up my income tax and wealth tax files. You have drawn a blank and.
now you have become desperate. It is not beyond you to cook up some false charge put me in jail and silence my voice. Be sure lam not afraid. IN the solitude of jail, 1 will turn out a book on the Indian Marcos and Imelda. The whole world will read it. You can have me liquidated precisely in the same manner in which friend, Nusli Wadia was being liquidated. The trouble with you Prime Minster is that you do not reckon that there is some inscrutable moral law that ultimately prevails over anything that you might engineer.”
Article extracted from this publication >> September 15, 1989
