Drama in courtroom as Jethmalani grills Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, who has sued Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for defamation, was cross-examined in an open court on Monday by former Union minister and fellow lawyer Ram Jethmalani.

In course of a back-and-forth interaction that went on for four hours, Mr Jaitley was asked to explain how he called the damage to his reputation “irreparable and
unquantifiable” and whether it had anything to do with his “personal feelings of greatness”. Mr Jethmalani, a former BJP leader, was unsparing as he demanded that Mr Jaitley explain — “Why the defamation suit?” The court has directed Mr Jaitley to appear again for cross-examination on Tuesday. In the intense courtroom drama that continued till 4pm, the bone of contention was the establishment of loss to the finance minister’s reputation. At one point, the legal stalwart, Mr Jethmalani, even got into a discussion on dictionary meaning of ‘goodwill’ and ‘reputation’.

He said: “I am showing you an authoritative dictionary of websters and are you aware of the difference between the two words?” “Now I suggest to you that goodwill is enjoyed by even a crook who has done some good things to somebody.”

Further on, in his statement, Mr Jaitley said, “It appears that defendants (Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and others) made defamatory statements against me immediately after the raid. Their effort was to deflect the attention from this raid and somehow link me to the controversy with which I have no connection.”