Mahajan threatens Jaya with libel

“Enough is enough. I am the only person who has left the PMO recently, so her hint is obvious. Self-respect has no price. There is a limit to tolerance,” a visibly disturbed Mahajan said at a press conference at which he released his letter.

His reaction is a reflection of the anger building up in the BJP against the AIADMK. A section of the party is applying pressure on the leadership to sever ties with the AIADMK. But a powerful section is against jeopardising the Government. The issue is expected to come up in the party’s NationalExecutive which begins tomorrow.

In Raipur, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee declined to comment on Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s demand that the AIADMK be dropped immediately from the coalition. “I have not seen Mamata Banerjee’s full statement. I would not like to comment on press reports,” he said in response to questions.

Mahajan’s action can only weaken an already tenuous relationship. Acknowledging this, he retorted, “Relations are strained. Everyone knows this.” Describing it as a personal letter, he said that he had consulted all those he considered necessary before sending it. He had first faxed the letter to Jayalalitha and put it on the Internet to be doubly sure that she got it, he said.

In yesterday’s letter to the Prime Minister, the AIADMK had said there had been frequent interactions of “a gentleman who was till recently part of the PMO” with the impugned (newspaper) group’s senior personnel. “Such close interaction with those facing serious charges which are underinvestigation naturally leads to adverse inferences,” the letter had stated.

Though he addressed her as “Dear Jayalalithaji” and signed off as “Yours brotherly”, the tone and tenor of the letter was anything but that.

Requesting her to “stop beating about the bush” and name him through a signed document so that he could take legal action, Mahajan told journalists that he had consulted his lawyers who had told him that her earlier letter was “80 per cent adequate” to file a defamation suit but that he wanted to have a water-tight case. If she did not reply, however, then his purpose (of clearing his name) would be served since it would mean that she did not mean him, he said.

Stating categorically that he had not discussed any pending case or transfer of any official, including Bezbaruah’s, with anybody, Mahajan wrote that the entire basis of Jayalalitha’s allegation seemed to be an adverse inference drawn out of his so-called meeting with senior officials of a newspaper group.

“In the pastfour months, I have met the owners, proprietors and editors of all newspaper groups, individually and at social functions. In politics, you sometimes interact with people who have FERA allegations against them. Meeting is no crime,” he told journalists. “Nobody from the Times of India has ever asked me for anything,” he added.

Tacitly questioning Jayalalitha’s own credentials when it came to complaining about corruption, Mahajan wrote: “I am pained to observe that while your own corruption cases, for you, are nothing but just political vendetta’ of which you are an innocent victim’, you have yourself chosen to level such a serious allegation of corruption on another politician on such a flimsy ground. Worse still, you have indirectly harmed my reputation rather than directly levelling the charge.”

On how long the AIADMK-BJP alliance would last, Mahajan retorted, “I am more interested in the continuance of the Vajpayee Government. Though we don’t want any of our allies to leave us, if shewithdraws, our Government won’t go.” He added, “This is not the way an alliance partner should behave.”