Bhardwaj action politically motivated, says BJP

NEW DELHI - An angry Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday night strongly condemned Karnataka Governor H.R. Bhardwaj’s giving the go-ahead for prosecution of Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa as “constitutionally improper and politically motivated” and said he “flaunts his political association on the sleeve”.

“Let us remember the governor is a political appointee. He flaunts his political association on the sleeve… His utterances, vocabulary show distinct political colour to his conduct,” senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said here.

Bhardwaj granted permission to prosecute BJP’s chief minister Yeddyurappa over allegations of nepotism in land allotment. The sanction was sought by two Bangalore-based advocates.

Jaitley said some political opponents of the party from the Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) had filed complaints in the Lok Ayukta and the investigations were pending.

“The government has also referred these cases to a commission of inquiry… The issue of jurisdiction is pending in the high court,” Jaitley said, adding that the governor did not wait for any of these investigations to complete.

“The governor becomes pro-active. Private complaint from two individuals is invited. Governor says I am now an investigating agency. I do not wait. There individuals are granted prosecution,” he said.

Jaitley said the governor does not even have complete documents of the case. “He is in such a hurry, converting himself into an investigating agency,” Jaitley said, adding that it was against well-known constitutional practices.

Jaitley, who is Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, said the governor also disregarded the opinion of the council of ministers and accused him of acting in the political interest of the Congress.

He said the Congress had suffered a major blow in the recent panchayat elections in Karnataka and the governor had acted keeping the political interest of Congress in mind.

He said the party’s Karnataka unit was meeting Friday and Saturday and the central leadership will decide its course of action after that.

Another party leader Venkaiah Naidu earlier Friday demanded immediate recall of Bhardwaj, saying he had converted “Raj Bhawan into Congress office and had become a willing partner in the destabilization moves by the opposition parties”.

BJP sources indicated that Yeddyurappa is not likely to step down following Bhardwaj’s nod for his prosection.

“Will we take action ourselves for a politically motivated act,” a senior leader said.

Yeddyurappa had allotted prime residential and commercial lands to his two sons, daughter, son-in-law, sister, her daughter and son-in-law but made his relatives surrender the land after the row broke out in November last year.

Bhardwaj late Friday permitted filing of criminal cases against Yeddyurappa over “various grave allegations of corruption and criminal misconduct”, overruling the BJP’s strong protests.