Modi better than Swaraj and Jaitley: Jethmalani

Ram Jethmalani, who wrote a letter to Nitin Gadkari, pitching for Narendra Modi as the PM candidate, went a step further, telling HT that Modi was better than both Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley. Harinder Baweja reports.

Stirring the hornet's nest in the BJP, Ram Jethmalani, who wrote a letter to party president Nitin Gadkari, pitching for Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate, went a step further, telling Hindustan Times that Modi was better than both Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley.

HT Image

"I'm looking for a man whose integrity can't be questioned and that's Modi. Besides, don't forget, he's turned the face of Gujarat," the Rajya Sabha member and Supreme Court lawyer said.

Asked why he preferred Modi over Jaitley, also considered a contender for the PM's post within party circles, Jethmalani, who seldom minces his words, said, "Jaitley has never contested an election. He is in the Rajya Sabha because of Modi's grace."

The lawyer-cum-politician, often in the midst of political controversies, was candid about why he wasn't similarly batting for Swaraj, also seen as a contender, saying quite bluntly that he didn't think she was "intellectually qualified.''

Jethmalani, who apart from writing a letter to Gadkari, had also taken up the issue of naming Modi as the party's PM candidate with the RSS.

File photo of Narendra Modi. Agencies