NEW DELHI: The BJP and the government on Monday launched a sharp attack on P Chidambaram and Congress president Sonia Gandhi over the Ishrat Jahan case after media reports claimed that the ex-Home Minister had signed the first affidavit declaring Ishrat and three others as terrorists but changed it within a month giving all four a clean chit.
MoS Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said Chidambaram has been caught red-handed and stands exposed. “Chidambaram did not perform his duty as Home Minister. He not only undermined the HM’s position but abused it by putting aside inputs of various intel agencies and confirming terrorists as innocents. He also pitted one agency against another,” Rijiju charged adding that Chidambaram would not have done such an anti-national act himself but was pressured to do so at the behest of top leaders.
Chidambaram had earlier claimed that the first affidavit declaring Ishrat and three others as terrorists was filed in the court without his approval and when the matter was brought to his notice he made some ‘editorial changes’ as it was being misinterpreted. In the second affidavit, Chidambaram as per reports did a U-turn saying that intelligence inputs on Ishrat and the three others did not constitute conclusive proof and favoured a CBI probe in the encounter.