Suspended Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament Kirti Azad today said he will continue to fight against alleged corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association and that nobody can deter him from this campaign, a day after the cricket body filed defamation suits against him and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Unfazed by the BJP’s disciplinary action against him, Azad also continued his attack against Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on the DDCA corruption issue.
Reiterating his corruption charges against the cricket body, Azad accused it of ‘cost escalation without proof’ in renovating Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in 2008.
Azad also said he has sought time from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to explain the case to him.
Responding to the defamation suit filed against him by the DDCA, Azad said he was ‘grateful’ to all those who filed a case against him and warned ‘there will be more (evidences against corruption) coming out one after the other’.
"If you want to do PhD in corruption, go to DDCA, you will get your degree in one month," Azad said.
Azad said he would honour whatever decision the BJP takes in his case.
"But nobody can deter me. I am the son of a freedom fighter. Nobody can deter me from fighting against corruption. I shall do that till the last drop of my blood or breath. It is for the future of our children and we should be together fighting for the good cause," he said.
He alleged that politicians of both the National Democratic Alliance and the United Progressive Alliance are together when it comes to corruption in Board for Control of Cricket in India.
"All of them, whether it is from my party or from the other party...ruling or opposition, they were all together... united in corruption. So you have a UPA and an NDA...in the BCCI you have a United Alliance -- UA," Azad said.
He also expressed doubts about fairness in a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into alleged corruption in the DDCA.
"Rs 141 crore spent on the stadium and still counting. Except the initial Rs 25 crore approval by the executive committee for allowing contract to Engineering Projects (India) Ltd, no proof of cost escalation is available on record. If it all they had changed the building plan, it should have been approved. If this is not corruption, what is it?," Azad said.
He alleged that no further approvals of any cost escalations were written in the minutes of the DDCA executive committee meeting.
"Subsequently, in December, 2012, the executive committee seems to have ratified all expenditure relating to the stadium," the cricketer-turned politician said.
The DDCA had on Saturday filed defamation suits in Delhi high court against Kejriwal and Azad for allegedly making defamatory remarks against it on its functioning and finances.
The BJP suspended Azad after he levelled charges of corruption in the DDCA, at a time Jaitley headed the body.
When questioned about the BJP’s action against him, Azad asserted that he has nothing to say against the senior BJP leader.
"All I can say is that we kept him informed through 200 letters, 500 emails...I have run from pillar to post...then I reached on the conclusion...It is monumental apathy, phenomenal incompetence," he said, adding, it was like when Rome was burning, Nero and his associates were fiddling.
Azad demanded to know why people were making out as if it was a fight between Jaitley and himself and pointed out that he had never named him.
"But I have always said that he was totally informed of the fact because we have written reminders to him, we have met him," Azad said.
"I want to know what I have spoken against the party," he said, adding that he was sticking to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's line on corruption.
Asked about the the BJP parliamentary board meeting which is expected to take a decision in his case, he said, "I should have been in Delhi today. I may be expelled from the party. But I believe if I have given my word that I am here at 11.30 am, no matter, let there be a tsunami in the world, I will be here."
