New Delhi, August 02: Home minister P. Chidambaram on Monday said BJP had stepped up its attacks on him in the 2G scam in conjunction with the pace of investigations in the right- wing terror cases.
Chidambaram also suggested that many BJP leaders had told him in private that they didn’t believe in the charges that the Opposition party was otherwise levelling against him in the 2G case.
When asked about the BJP allegations that he was clubbing unrelated issues of the 2G scam and the right- wing terror probes in order to offset the BJP offensive, he said: “ Well, I am not sure they are entirely unrelated. It is clear that the step- up in the attacks ( by the BJP) is running parallel to the pace of the investigations ( into the right- wing terror probes).” Chidambaram’s remarks on Monday come exactly a week after he had said that the BJP was targeting him because he was seriously pursuing terror cases in which fundamentalist elements linked to the RSS were involved.
Chidambaram suggested again on Monday that the level of BJP’s tirade against him in the 2G case is rising very much in proportion to the pace of the right- wing terror probes. Home ministry sources say Chidambaram’s argument is not completely unfounded. The NIA is probing nine cases of right- wing terror and in 2011 has chargesheeted Hindutva elements in the Mecca Masjid blasts, Ajmer blasts and Samjhauta blasts.
Top RSS leader, Indresh Kumar, has been named in all these chargesheets for financing the blasts but has not been designated as an accused. The NIA now wants to question him soon. The federal investigation agency now also suspects that the 2008 Modasa blasts are the handiwork of Hindutva elements.
“ To further increase the discomfiture of the BJP, the NIA has recently also been transferred probes into the blasts in Malegaon in 2006 and 2008 as well as the murder case of RSS worker Sunil Joshi,” sources said.
Chidambaram also said that the BJP had gone beyond him and was now targeting PM Manmohan Singh in the 2G case. “ They are targeting the Prime Minister now. All I can say is that they ( BJP) must have some reason target us. Although they know, and privately number of BJP leaders have told me that they don’t believe in some of the things they are telling…,” Chidambaram said.
The home minister also dismissed apprehensions that the Congress was not defending him as strongly as they were defending the integrity of the PM in the 2G scam. “ Your doubts are completely misplaced,” Chidambaram said. He added that the government will reply in Parliament to BJP’s charges in the 2G case. “ There is no allegation I have reply or the PM has to reply to outside Parliament,” he said.
Chidambaram meanwhile brushed aside question on whether he is prepared to appear as a witness in the 2G case as demanded the counsel of ex- telecom minister A. Raja.
“ Arguments by a counsel in court are arguments, no more. Full stop,” Chidambaram said.
Courtesy: Mailtoday.in