Jaitley launches www.knowpratibhapatil.com

New Delhi, July 10: Turning the heat on the UPA presidential nominee Pratibha Patil, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley today launched a website listing all her antecedents to enable MPs and MLAs to exercise their franchise knowing full well if the 'likely winner' is worthy of occypying the chair she is seeking to occupy.

Launching a website 'www.knowpratibhapatil.com' and releasing a compilation of reports and articles published in the media for the knowledge and consumption of not just the MPs and MLAs across the country before they exercised their franchise but also for the citizens, who had empowered their representatives, to know the type of President they are likely to get, Mr Jaitley told newspersons at the residence of senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu.

India Project, which has designed the website and brought out the booklet, has placed all information available in the public domain, including Mrs Patil's reaction about the allegations levelled. This would help the people judge if she will be the custodian of the Constitution or a 'rubber stamp' of those who have catapulted her to the high office, he said.

The website is for public use and the booklet, a compilation of various reports and articles published in respected newspapers, articles and editorial comments, will be sent to the electoral college of MPs and MLAs across the states in the country to enable them to exercise their votes after knowing their candidate's antecedents, he added.

'It is case of India diminished and India disgraced' as it suits Congress to have a pliable person in the Rashtrapati Bhavan who is not just loyal to the Nehru dynasty but also vulnerable. It was with the same purpose former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had chosen Fakruddin Ali Ahmed as President and he did exactly what was expected of him -- signing the Emergency proclamation in June 1975 on the dotted line snuffing out democracy and the constitution. It is this concern for the future of the mother land that has prompted us to create a website, an India Project member said.

The sources of each of these media exposes were not baseless allegation by the Opposition but throughly verifiable records of Bombay High Court and lower courts in Maharashtra, Reserve Bank of India and official communication of Department of Cooperatives of Government of Maharashtra and letters written by local Congress office-bearers, he said.

Asked if the BJP would also give out information about Mr Bhairon Singh Shekhwat, the NDA-backed independent nominee, Mr Jaitley said the party would not prevent if the other side has any such information about Mr Shekhwat.

The website, which pays homage to former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, has also pasted his last statement expressing his support to Mr Shekhawat's candidature. The website intends to serve as a carrier of properly sourced information about Mrs Patil and the individuals, public spirited individuals, media institutions concerned should be able to avail themselves of the contents of this site.

While the spokesperson for Mr Shekhawat has officially maintained that she would not like to use any personal material about Mrs Patil the BJP has already come out with a booklet as its own publication publishing two articles as to how the Pratibha's family availed itself of loans from the Pratibha Mahila Co-operative bank which all turned to Non-Productive Assets. The Second article deals with Mrs Patil shielding her brother from the investigations into the murder of a rival Congress leader in Jalagaon district.

UNI