L'affaire J K Jain
Sid Harth
BJP executive shows Jain the door
SHARAD GUPTA
NEW DELHI, JANUARY 4: The Jain vs Mishra war took a new turn today when
former BJP Rajya Sabha member J K Jain was expelled from the party's
national executive last night for serving a legal notice to Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, seeking an apology for being branded an
ISI agent.
Jain, however, has threatened BJP chief Bangaru Laxman with another
legal notice for having committed ``contempt of the judicial process,''
unless the expulsion order was withdrawn. ``I request you to write a
simple letter without mentioning the cause and to withdraw this letter,
so that I am not compelled to initiate any contempt proceedings,'' Jain
wrote to Bangaru.
The decision of Jain's expulsion from the national executive, was taken
by Bangaru last evening on the prompting of Jain's one-time mentor Home
Minister L K Advani, party sources said. Advani was forced to distance
himself from Jain, sources said, because like Kalyan Singh, another
Advani-loyalist, Jain too took on Vajpayee.
Earlier, Jain had served legal notices under section 80 of C.P.C.to
Vajpayee,his principal secretary Brajesh Mishra, Cabinet Secretary,
Home Secretary and directors of Intelligence Bureau and Research and
Analysis Wing (RAW).He had also sought dismissal of Mishra and
Director, RAW for ``tarnishing his reputation.''
The notice has already been received by offices of the Prime Minister,
Mishra as well as of DIB on December 30, January 1 and December 29
respectively, as per the acknowledgements received by Jain's lawyer,
Aman Lekhi.
Jain TV, owned by Dr Jain, is scheduled to telecast the first episode
of the series of exposes against Mishra -- which it was promising for
the past 25 days -- on the concluding day of BJP's national executive
on Friday. Besides, it has also launched another TV campaign titled,
`We want national security and not a surrender before terrorism,'
against Vajpayee's peace initiative in Kashmir.
Jain was expected to call off his campaign after being granted two
major favours by the Government, a TV news agency and uplinking
facility to his channel, last month. He instead, stepped it up not only
against Mishra but against Vajpayee as well, due to covert support of a
section of RSS and BJP leaders, claimed a BJP Minister.
The Jain TV campaign on Kashmir, contains clippings of Vajpayee's
speech at BJP's National Security Rally on May 2, 1990 at New Delhi.
``We will have to reply to guns with guns and bullets with bullets
only, till Kashmir youth continues to hold guns. The reply will be
given by our police and if need be by the Army as well,'' Vajpayee is
shown as saying -- a contrast to his recent peace initiative. The
clipping says Srinagar's Lal Chowk was burning then while even Delhi's
Red Fort in not safe now.
Jain TV also claims that it will telecast other episodes of ``Mishra's
exposes.'' The Prime Minister too has been made a party in Jain's legal
case, because RAW works directly under him and only the PM could
dismiss RAW chief as well as Mishra, said P N Lekhi, Jain's co-counsel.
The notice also refers to a similar RAW report used by the then Railway
Minister Abdul Ghani Khan Chaudhury, to get his younger brother Abu
Nasser Khan Chaudhury, because of a property dispute in 1987-88.
Nasser's case was contested and won by Lekhi himself who feels that
Jain's is a similar case.
It also refers to Jain's much publicised visit to Central Hall of
Parliament with ``Am I an ISI agent'' painted on his shirt following by
his meeting with Prime Minister and Home Minister for over two hours.
``The Ministers could not justify the false and scandalous label of an
ISI agent stuck by RAW on our client'', the notice says.
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/front_pa.htm#head5
BJP HITS BACK AFTER JAIN JOLT
FROM RADHIKA RAMASESHAN
New Delhi, Jan. 4:
The two-day BJP national executive began here today under the shadow of
a legal notice served on Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his
principal secretary Brajesh Mishra by the party’s former Rajya Sabha
MP, J.K. Jain.
The BJP struck back by dropping Jain from its national executive. In a
curt letter to the owner of Jain TV, party president Bangaru Laxman
directed him not to attend the meeting.
Party leaders decided yesterday to drop him after Jain served a legal
notice on Vajpayee and Mishra under Section 80 of the CrPC, seeking an
apology for branding him an ISI agent. The notice also sought the
dismissal of Mishra and the RAW director for “tarnishing his
reputation”.
The other provocation for taking pre-emptive action against Jain was a
possibility that a handful of national executive members — allegedly
put up by former BJP president Kushabhau Thakre — might raise the issue
of why Jain was being “hounded” by RAW and, by implication, Mishra and
the Prime Minister’s Office. These members hailing from Madhya Pradesh
are not just Thakre loyalists, but also owe their political careers to
party veteran Vijaya Raje Scindia, Jain’s now-estranged mentor. The two
fell out over a dispute over prime property in central Delhi which
houses Jain’s TV studio.
“Once the leadership got wind of this plan, they decided to scuttle it
by removing Jain. They also feared he might have talked to the media,
so they wanted to avert an embarrassment,” BJP sources said.
Asked if Jain would be expelled from primary membership, party
spokesman Jana Krishnamurthy said: “It has come to the ears of the
leadership that something was told through Jain TV. At an appropriate
time, appropriate action will be taken.”
Jain has threatened to expose the “black deeds” of Mishra through
a “landmark in investigative journalism”. Asked if this constituted
anti-party activity, Krishnamurthy said: “The party will watch how he
proceeds. If the situation reaches a stage for action to be taken, the
leadership will take it.” Jain has called a news conference tomorrow.
BJP sources, however, said Jain’s expulsion was inevitable ever since
he trained his guns on Vajpayee.
The sources said as late as yesterday, when he had called on Laxman,
the BJP chief “advised” him to either withdraw his legal notice or
reword it in more general terms against the Indian Union rather than
name specific persons. However, Jain is believed to have told Laxman
that the notice was against the “office of the PM” and not Vajpayee per
se, and if the PM withdrew the ISI charge against him, he would also
retract the notice.
The Jain controversy started when, in trying to find out why his
proposal to set up a teleport at Greater Noida and government
accreditation to his TV agency were not being cleared, he learnt that
there was a RAW report linking him to Pakistan’s ISI.
Later, he realised the home ministry was unaware of the report. Shortly
thereafter, he met Vajpayee and L.K. Advani to seek a clarification.
The legal notice says that at the meeting, “the ministers could not
justify the false and scandalous label of ISI agent stuck by RAW on our
client”.
Fifteen days ago, the information and broadcasting ministry cleared his
accreditation on the basis of a no-objection certificate from the home
ministry, I&B minister Sushma Swaraj said.
Jain has alleged that he suspects Mishra to be the prime motivator of
the campaign against him. Asked if the action against Jain vindicated
RAW’s allegation, Krishnamurthy said: “I do not agree with this.”
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