Nitin Gadkari Set on Path of Suicide: Ram Jethmalani

NEW DELHI Suspended from BJP for alleged indiscipline, Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani unleashed a fresh attack on party president Nitin Gadkari saying he was set on the path of suicide and dragging the party with him. Jethmalani, who was in the forefront of the demand for Gadkari's resignation, said that he suspected that the party chief was prejudiced against him because of "personal pique".

In a letter to him sent on Monday, Jethmalani alleged: "I am convinced that you are firmly set on the path of suicide and you are determined to drag the whole party with you. " Vinash kal vipreet buddhi (one loses mind when one is doomed)' is an old maxim," he wrote on a day the party's parliamentary board decided to issue him a show cause notice asking why he should not be expelled.

Jethmalani was given ten days to reply. The decision was taken after Jethmalani wrote to Gadkari questioning the stand taken by Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj, and her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley, to oppose the government's decision to appoint a new CBI director. "Your order of suspension is ultravires and usurpation of the power of the parliamentary board. Besides no situation had arisen in which you should have proceeded without speaking to me and complying with ordinary decencies of a quasi-judicial office which you hold," Jethmalani said. He ended his letter by saying that the action against him did not bother him.