National President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Nitin Gadkari is not contemplating, at least for the moment, filing any defamation suit against anti-corruption crusader turned politician Arvind Kejriwal, who made serious allegations against him.
“We have not thought about it as we feel that such comments (by Kejriwal) do not deserve any reaction,” Nitin Gadkari’s legal counsel and senior advocate of Supreme Court Pinky Anand told Express.
Speaking exclusively to Express on the sidelines of an event in Hyderabad, Anand dismissed Kejriwal’s allegations saying, “The first comment I heard after the much hyped latest expose by Arvind Kejriwal by some persons who attended Kejriwal’s press conference was that it was really disappointing.”
“Pahad kodhe to chuha nikala woh bhi, mara hua (After digging the mountain came out a rat, a dead one),” she remarked.
Gadkari’s counsel was of the view that Kejriwal is hogging the limelight by the reactions to the allegations he was making. ‘’Hence, there is no need to react on his latest outburst,’’ she said.
Asked what could be the legal proceedings if and when the BJP leader decids to file a defamation case against Kejriwal, Pinky Anand said it would be criminal defamation. ‘’However, as of now, there are no plans to file any law suit,’’ she said.
On Wednesday, Kejriwal had alleged that the BJP president had colluded with National Congress Party’s (NCP) Ajit Pawar to exploit farmers in Maharashtra. He accused Gadkari of being involved in land and irrigation scams in Maharashtra and acting against farmers there.
BJP had refuted allegations and said charges of ‘usurping land’ against Gadkari were fabricated. It accused Team Kejriwal of turning their platform into a poll rally. The BJP president dismissed those charges as baseless.