Delhi: It is easy to fight an enemy when you have unity within the house. However, life becomes a little bit difficult if you have to fire-fight on two fronts. This is precisely what Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's dilemma is at the moment.
Jaitley, who has been accused of alleged corrupt practices in the DDCA by Arvind Kejriwal and who has taken the Aam Aadmi Party leaders to court on defamation charges, is also being hounded by BJP MP Kirti Azad.
Azad, who held a press conference on Sunday and enumerated various corrupt practices that had taken place during the time when Jaitley was the DDCA chief for 13 years, has been called a 'Trojan horse' by the Finance Minister.
Returning the barb, the MP had tweeted couple of days back - “Not a Trojan horse but Achilles heel; wait till I unmask the ‘behroopiya’ (impostor).”
Also, Azad held the presser on Sunday despite BJP chief Amit Shah reportedly asking him twice not to do so.
In his presser, Azad, stopped just short of naming Jaitley, while alleging corruption in Delhi's cricket body.
Thus, it would not be an understatement to say that the Arun Jaitley versus Kirti Azad fight is turning out to be major headache for the BJP.
Also, while giving ammunition to Kejriwal's party, it sends out a wrong signal to the public at large.
The battle between Jaitley and Azad was not limited to press conferences and Twitter but also reached the Parliament on Monday when, after the FM made a statement that he had nothing to do with wrong-doings if any in the DDCA, Azad raised the issue twice in Lok Sabha and sought a CBI investigation into his allegations and reminded the House of who was heading the DDCA between 2008 and 2013.
No doubt this is as embarrassing as it can get for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party. To imagine that a party MP is is targeting a minister on the floor of the House is unprecedented for the BJP.
In no mood to relent, Azad tweeted this morning: “Hello dear Arun Jaitley hampar defemation file kar rahe ho na? Please karo na. Don't take injunction, don't gag freedom of speech. (sic)."
Meanwhile, the party appears to be solidly behind Jaitley with Union Ministers JP Nadda, Smriti Irani, Piyush Goel, Dharmendra Pradhan and Rajyavardhan Rathore accompanying the FM to Patiala House court to file a statement in a criminal defamation case against leaders of AAP.
But to be noted is the fact that other top ministers like Home Minister Rajnath Singh or Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj have not spoken yet on the matter.
So is Azad the 'Trojan horse' that Jaitley has accused him of without taking the Bihar MP's name?
And did Azad meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi to settle scores with Jaitley as the FM has again indirectly accused the Bihar MP of?
And can the saffron party tackle the growing divide between two of its MPs and do damage control in time?
The BJP will have to answer/address these questions soon.
