The much talked about clean chit to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Nitin Gadkari by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue S Gurumurthy on allegations of financial wrongdoings took a drastic turn after the senior RSS leader clarified that he didn’t know enough about BJP President to free him of any allegations.
In a letter written to Gadkari on Wednesday, Gurumurthy said that during the core committee of BJP on November 6, he had clearly stated that the documents related to Purti group substantiated that the BJP President was not involved in any wrongdoing morally or legally.
“I reiterate that on my investigation, I have found that there was no wrongdoing by Nitin Gadkari morally or legally in the Purti matter. I had professionally examined the Purti papers and expressed my professional views,” said S Gurumurthy in the letter sent to Gadkari.
However, Gurumurthy has also clarified that he didn’t know Gadkari enough to give a clean chit to him.
“It is ridiculous to say that I have given a clean chit to BJP president Nitin Gadkari. I do not know enough about him to give him a clean chit. I did feel on my probe that the media charge of money laundering against Nitin Gadkari was ridiculous,” said S Gurumurthy in an article on his website on November 13.
The flip-flop by Gurumurthy is a result of the changing power equation in the main opposition party as senior leader LK Advani is not convinced of the clean chit given by the RSS ideologue and he had declined to take part in the core committee meeting of senior BJP leaders on November 6.
Members of the RSS had sent Gurumurthy to convince BJP leaders that Gadkari was not involved in money laundering or financial wrongdoing after senior leader Ram Jethmalani had openly stated that the BJP President should quit from the top post. Jethmalani had also claimed that former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh and Shatrughan Sinha supported his decision and wanted Gadkari to quit as the party President.
Although a section within RSS blames Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi to be responsible for the consistent campaign against Gadkari, RSS wants to continue with its decision to give another three year term to Gadkari as the party President. Senior members of the BJP believe that attacks on Gadkari will continue because his tenure will end in December 2012 and his new tenure will start from January 2013.
