BJP has lost its high moral ground, says Yashwant Sinha on Jay Shah issue

Patna: BJP veteran Yashwant Sinha, on Wednesday, criticised BJP’s strong defence of party president Amit Shah's son, saying that it has lost the high moral ground acquired in all these years.

"Perhaps, the high moral ground we have acquired all these months and years appears to have been lost," Sinha said.

The former finance minister, who recently turned a strong critic of the Modi government's economic policies, also objected to the filing of a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against ‘The Wire’, which carried a story on Jay Shah's firms.

Such an attempt to suppress the voice of the media was avoidable, he said.

"I will certainly like to say that the manner in which a central minister jumped into fray in defence of Jay Shah was not called for. He is a central minister not a chartered accountant of Jay Shah," said Sinha, in an apparent reference to Union minister Piyush Goyal's defence of Amit Shah's son Jay Shah.

He also expressed his reservations over the "very special circumstances" under which Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was cleared to fight Jay Shah's defamation case against ‘The Wire’.

He, however, insisted that he did not want to comment on the merit of the story carried by the news portal.

It is a matter of inquiry and investigation, and any government agency can do it, Sinha said.

The BJP has accused Sinha of having a link with the opposition party, the Congress.