BJP leader and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday accused former Home Minister P Chidambaram of ignoring a terror plot and trying to frame Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. Sitharaman sought answers from Chidambaram, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi on supposed revelations in the case made by Times Now earlier in the day. According to the TV channel, an RTI query revealed that Chidambaram had signed the first affidavit in the case in which Jahan was identified as an operative of the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Chidambaram had earlier denied seeing this document. Later, Jahan's connections with the LeT and the terror plot theory were dropped from a second version of the affidavit.
This, the BJP inferred, shows that the Congress knew the threat Jahan and the LeT posed to the country, but instead changed facts to try and "eliminate" Modi. Modi was chief minister of Gujarat at the time and the BJP has claimed all along that the LeT was plotting to kill him.
Sitharaman said, "You underplayed a terror plot that could eliminate [Prime Minister Modi]. You are clearly admitting that you cannot fight this politically. So eliminate or allow to eliminate or encourage elimination of the leader who you are mortified of fighting politically.” She added that Sonia Gandhi worked closely with Chidambaram on this.
Minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said Chidambaram and his party should take responsibility for changing the affidavit, and that his involvement was now unquestionable. Chidambaram refused to comment on the BJP's allegations, saying he would have to go through the RTI documents first, and the Congress said the Centre had planted "fake stories" in the media.
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