The BJP on Sunday launched a no-holds-barred attack on Congress leader and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram after the Income Tax Department filed chargesheets against his family members.
BJP president Amit Shah led the charge on Twitter, even as the party fielded Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to attack Mr. Chidambaram and the Congress. Mr. Chidambaram responded on Twitter, taking pot-shots at the two BJP leaders and dismissing their claims.
“Under the Black Money Act, 4 chargesheets have been filed against P. Chidambaram and his family for possessing and operating several illegal assets and accounts in foreign countries. IT estimates illegal assets held by UPA’s FM to be to the tune of 3 Bn dollars!,” Mr. Shah tweeted. “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?”
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Mr. Chidambaram replied: “The president of the richest political party in India is dreaming of billions of dollars! Bring the money back and put Rs 15 lakhs in the account of every Indian as you promised.”
At a press conference, Ms. Sitharaman termed the chargesheets against Mr. Chidambaram’s family members the Nawaz Sharif moment for the Congress, a reference to Pakistan Supreme Court’s decision disqualifying the former Prime Minister 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 whether for the Congress..., we are seeing the Nawaz Sharif moment.”
She asked whether Congress president Rahul Gandhi would investigate the issue involving a senior leader. “Mr. Gandhi, who is incidentally out on bail in [cases of] some questionable financial transactions, should certainly comment and tell the entire party and the people of India whether he is going to investigate this.”
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Mr. Chidambaram was quick to hit back. “The buzz in Delhi is that Ms. Nirmala Sitaraman will be removed as Defence Minister and appointed as a lawyer of the Income Tax Department. Welcome to the bar, Ms. Sitaraman,” he tweeted.
On May 11, the Income Tax Department filed chargesheets against Mr. Chidambaram’s wife Nalini, son Karti, daughter-in-law Srinidhi and a firm under the Black Money Act for allegedly not disclosing their foreign assets. His family members have said the charges were baseless as the overseas investments had been shown in their IT returns.