Flip-flop Ram’s latest: I saw draft of PM’s appeal, made changes

The flip-flop-flip Ram Jethmalani, who is back in the contest against Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Lucknow, has claimed that he wa...

The flip-flop-flip Ram Jethmalani, who is back in the contest against Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Lucknow, has claimed that he was shown the draft of the PM’s appeal to him to withdraw and had even suggested changes in the statement.

He has also claimed that he told two ‘‘Minister-friends’’ who had gone to him to broker peace that he wanted an apology for Lalji Tandon’s alleged remark that he was ‘‘mentally weak and frustrated.’’ Speaking to The Indian Express from Lucknow, Jethmalani said he would once again start posing 10 questions to Vajpayee every day. ‘‘You will see the old Jethmalani in action.’’ However, he added that given Vajpayee’s public appeal to him, he wouldn’t raise ‘‘personal questions.’’

‘‘After Lalji Tandon used intemperate language against me,’’ Jethmalani said, ‘‘I framed 10 questions to ask the Prime Minsiter. This list reached the hands of a friend of mine, who is also a friend of the PM, and of two Ministers in the Cabinet. I will not disclose their names. This friend showed the 10 questions to the two Minister-friends who came and saw me. The third question (about the PM’s health) obviously troubled them.’’ The two ‘‘Minister-Friends,’’ Jethmalani said, asked him whether it was fair for ‘‘two friends to be fighting.’’ Jethmalani claims that the ‘‘common friend’’ showed him a three-line paragraph of the PM’s (proposed) statement. ‘‘I said you are dealing with a lawyer, what kind of an apology is this, he has to apologise for what Lalji Tandon had to say. Then they changed the last para.’’ When contacted, BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Naqvi said: ‘‘This is a matter between Jethmalani and the Prime Minister, the party is not involved.’’