Vajpayee told us we have been unfair to you: Hindujas

When asked why, Vajpayee just smiled, Srichand Hinduja said. “But he had the courage to admit that he did something that he should not have done,” Srichand Hinduja said during the programme which also features his brother Gopichand Hinduja.

The Hindujas, who had a frosty relationship with L K Advani also claimed they helped out the BJP leader. “What we did for him (Advani) we did not do for any politician,” they said. Those details will be broadcast in the second part of the conversation next Saturday on NDTV 24×7.

The Hindujas claimed BJP leader Arun Jaitley bore a grudge against them because he believed they had scuttled his chances of becoming Law Minister in the NDA government, and Ram Jethmalani became Law Minister—Jaitley was to get the portfolio later. But, said the Hindujas, far from favouring Jethmalani they actually had “big differences” with him. At meetings with the BJP leader, they tried to convey this across to him but Jaitley was not convinced, the brothers said. “We are not pro-or-anti anyone, including Arun Jaitley,” they said.

Calling Bofors a “political animal rather than a case,” the brothers claimed to have been approached by V P Singh to give statements against Rajiv Gandhi. And that when Moraji Desai came to power, he asked them to reveal the numbers of Indira Gandhi’s bank accounts—the Hindujas said she did not have any such accounts—and even offered to give them “ten times the business” in return.