BJP leaders hit out at Chidambaram
NEWDELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a frontal attack against senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday, two days after the Income Tax department filed four charge sheets against the former finance minister’s family members in connection with alleged illegal assets worth $3 billion.
The BJP claimed the Congress-led UPA government had not acted on a Supreme Court order for setting up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) as it would have indicted its own leaders. BJP president Amit Shah and Union defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman were among the leaders who hit out at Chidambaram.
“Under the Black Money Act, 4 charge sheets have been filed against P Chidambaram and his family for possessing and operating several illegal assets and accounts in foreign countries. I-T estimates illegal assets held by UPA’S FM to be to the tune of 3 Bn dollars! #Blackmoneyofpc,” said Shah’s first tweet.
In another tweet, Shah said, “This explains why despite Supreme Court’s orders Sonia Gandhi, former PM Dr Manmohan Singh & then FM P Chidambaram dragged their feet on formation of SIT, one of the first decisions taken by Modi govt, to fight Black Money! How could they indict their own selves? #BlackMoneyofpc.”
Sitharaman called the charge sheets as the “Nawaz Sharif moment” of the Congress, referring to Pakistan Supreme Court disqualifying Sharif from holding office because of non-disclosure of assets and income earned abroad.
“The parallels cannot be missed out in this case. I am wondering if for the Congress party in India, we are seeing the Nawaz Sharif moment,” she said.
Chidambaram hit back at Shah and Sitharaman.
“The president of the richest political party in India is dreaming of billions of dollars! Bring the money back and put ₹15 lakh in the account of every Indian as you promised,” he tweeted.
He also quipped that Sitharaman may be dropped from the cabinet and made a lawyer of the income tax department.
“The buzz in Delhi is that Ms Nirmala Sitaraman will be removed as Defence Minister and appointed as lawyer of the Income-tax department. Welcome to the bar, Ms Sitaraman,” he tweeted.
The charge sheets, filed on Friday, named Chidambaram’s wife Nalini, son Karti, daughter-inlaw Srinidhi and a firm under the Black Money Act for allegedly not disclosing their foreign assets. The former finance minister’s family members had said charge sheets a were “baseless allegations” as the overseas investments under question had been reflected in their I-T returns.