BJP slams Congress over graft, P Chidambaram

With the Rajya Sabha again witnessing disruptions, the BJP on Thursday tore into the Congress over the alleged involvement of its leaders in corruption cases and sought to link former finance minister P. Chidambaram’s actions to his son’s “interest” in some companies run by his friends.

Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman also raised the issue of alleged corruption charges against chief ministers of Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand at a press conference and demanded that the Congress take action against these leaders.

Citing a recent notification by the Swiss government, she said it had “reinforced” the charge that Preneet Kaur, a minister in the UPA government, had an undisclosed bank account in Switzerland. Ms Kaur is Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh’s wife.

The BJP’s strong attack indicated that there was still no thaw in the frosty relations between the two parties, hopes of which were raised after Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and sought their cooperation for the passage of the GST bill.

Ms Sitharaman said she would not “imagine” that the attack on the Congress would have a bearing on its stand on the GST bill. “GST is something which is their (Congress) bill. It is in national interest,” she said.

If these are becoming issues because of which the Congress, and I would not imagine that, would not support GST, then it would be a sad day,” she said, expressing hope that it would deal with the allegations with “maturity”.

Alleging that Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram was linked to firms accused in the 2G scam cases, she said the recent raids by income-tax and Enforcement Directorate authorities on certain firms allegedly connected to him were “part of a larger 2G inquiry”.