New Delhi: Amid fresh revelations that the then Home Minister P. Chidambaram himself had approved the first affidavit that describes Ishrat Jahan as part of a Lashkar module, BJP launched an all out attack on Congress, accusing it of playing with national security in trying to frame then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at a press conference that the BJP wanted answers from not just former Home Minister P Chidambaram but also Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi over the Ishrat Jahan case.
“The media reports have now established that it was Chidambaram who also cleared the first affidavit,” she said, accusing the Congress leader of acting at his party chief Sonia Gandhi’s behest to implicate Modi.
The disclosure was made by an English News channel which cited an RTI reply that claimed the former home minister had signed the original affidavit describing Ishrat Jahan as part of a Lashkar module.
"You underplayed a terror plot that could eliminate (Modi)," Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
"Sonia Gandhi cleverly worked on this. She went around the town claiming an encounter has happened. She worked together with Chidambaram and she cannot isolate herself on this,” Sitharaman said.
She alleged that the entire Congress party derived benefit out of this.
Within hours of a BJP onslaught against Chidambaram and Gandhi family, Chidmabaram said he would not like to comment without "perusing the files and the noting".
But, he said, a second affidavit was filed in the case after thorough consultation with the then Home Secretary and Attorney General.
"My public statements on why the second affidavit was filed after due and full consultation with the Home Secretary and the Attorney General are self-explanatory. I have nothing to add," he said in a statement.
He said the conclusion drawn from the first affidavit which named Ishrat Jehan as a terrorist and the second affidavit showing that she wasn't a terrorist "are not the correct conclusions to be drawn from the two affidavits."
"The IB only provides intelligence inputs. Whether a person is a terrorist or not has to be proved in a court of law on the basis of admissible evidence," he said.
