Nirmala Sitharaman, Chidambaram attack each other over assets, Rafale

New Delhi: Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday launched a scathing attack against the Congress asking party president Rahul Gandhi to come clean on the action taken by the Income Tax Department on the former finance minister P. Chidambaram for allegedly having undisclosed assets abroad.

Ms Sitharaman even wondered if this was the Congress party’s “Nawaz Sharif moment”. The defence minister was referring to the Pakistan Supreme Court’s decision to disqualify its former Prime Minister from holding office because of non-disclosure of assets and income earned abroad. Hitting back with a tongue-in-cheek tweet, Mr Chidambaram said that there was a buzz that she (Ms Sitharaman) was going to be removed from the Cabinet and appointed as a lawyer at the Income Tax department.

“The parallels cannot be missed out in this case. I am wondering if for Congress party in India, we are seeing a Nawaz Sharif moment,” Ms  Sitharaman told reporters here. She further added, “The Congress party president, who is also out on bail on some financial transactions which are questionable, should certainly comment and tell the entire party and people of India whether he is going to investigate this.” Upping the ante BJP National President Amit Shah also tweeted with the hashtag #BlackMoneyofPC on the action of the Income Tax Department against Mr Chidambaram. Mr Shah also linked this issue with the UPA government not setting up the SIT on black money. While Ms Sitharaman also said the law on black money was brought in by the Modi government because it had pledged to fight black money held in India and abroad before the last Lok Sabha elections.

Launching a counterattack Mr. Chidambaram tweeted: “The buzz in Delhi is that Ms Nirmala Sitharaman will be removed as defence minister and appointed as lawyer of the Income-Tax department. Welcome to the bar, Ms Sitharaman,” he further added, “The president of the richest political party in India is dreaming of billions of dollars! Bring the money back and put `15 lakhs in the account of every Indian as you promised.” Standing behind its leader, the Congress claimed that Ms Sitharaman had no moral authority to question the Congress and its leaders first she should tell the nation about the cost of Rafale jets. The Congress has been alleging a scam in procurement of the Rafale fighter jets and has asked the government to reveal the per piece price of the jets. Congress spokesman Pawan Khera said, “Ms Sitharaman is not interested in her ministry, first she should tell the nation about the price of the jets and why HAL was kept out of it. Then she should speak about scams that have taken place under the BJP governments.”

The Income Tax department on May 11 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. The chargesheets or prosecution complaints have been filed by the IT department before a special court in Chennai under Section 50 of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015.