New Delhi, Jan 14| 16: Senior advocate and Rajya Sabha member Ram Jethmalani had offered to defend Congress president Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case but “revoked” it when she did not act on his “advice” to allow Parliament to function in the normal way. He had made the offer to Ms Gandhi in a letter on December 10, 2015 telling her that he had “no reason to doubt” her stand that the prosecution instituted against her and Mr Rahul Gandhi by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy is “false and malicious”. “But this is to be established in court and not by tumult and disorder in the Rajya Sabha”, he told Ms Gandhi at a time when Congress paralysed Rajya Sabha during the Winter Session. The former BJP leader told Ms Gandhi that as a senior practising counsel and Parliamentarian he was “not happy” with what has been happening in the Rajya Sabha House “for the last few days”. “The institution of Parliament is suffering total loss of public respect. This does not augur well for Indian democracy,” he said in his letter. Mr Jethmalani today put the letters written by him to Ms Gandhi on his blogspot. He told Ms Gandhi that he neither needed any fees nor any other favour from her. “My services will be service to the nation”. “I hope you will allow the Parliament to function the normal way”, he had said concluding the letter in which he had also referred to himself as an “expelled” member of the BJP and “you know my role in recent Bihar elections”. Mr Jethmalani had pitched for Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister. “I know you have many great lawyers in the party. Still, my services are available to you if you need,” Jethmalani wrote to Sonia, assuring that he neither needed any fee nor any consideration for offering his services to defend her and Rahul in the National Herald case. Jethmalani said he was convinced that the Gandhis had done no wrong and was ready to defend them in the trial court free of charge. He attempted to prove his bona fide by saying his actions were always driven by clean politics and that he was not happy with what was happening in Rajya Sabha despite the Gandhis having done no wrong. Jethmalani said he had no reason to doubt that “Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have done no wrong and that the charges against them were false and malicious”. He tried to impress the Gandhis by reminding them about his role “in the recent Bihar elections”. If Jethmalani thought the Congress president would grab the offer, it did not happen. When he did not receive a prompt response, he wrote to Sonia again on December 12 saying since she had not responded to his offer, he would think he was discharged from the selfimposed obligation.
Source: PTI
