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A blackmailer does not go to the court, says Swamy

Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Bombay

Dr Subramanian Swamy today preferred to hit back mildly at Urban Development Minister Ram Jethmalani, in response to the latter's accusation that he was a "liar and a blackmailer". "If I was a blackmailer I would not have gone to the courts," he said in a telephone conversation from Delhi. "Instead, I would have blackmailed them secretly."

"If you call me an idiot, it is not necessary for me to reply to you," said the former Union law minister when asked to comment on Jethmalani's tirade against him in the Asian Age.

The urban development minister had written a signed article in the daily, calling Swamy a liar and a blackmailer. He also felt Swamy has to be "crushed and carefully incinerated". "It is not enough to throw him into the gutter, that is his natural habitat. There he will grow and flourish," the minister had written.

"Jethmalani has been accused under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. Instead of proving his innocence before the courts, he is passing remarks against me," added Swamy.

He also mentioned that he was nobody to influence All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary and former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha. "She knows what to do and what not to do. So, how can I influence her?"

Asked whether he was interested in destabilising the BJP government with Jayalalitha's help, he said, "I am no one to destabilise the government. Jethmalani is unnecessarily stating that I am the person who is influencing Jayalalitha."

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