As P Chidambaram prepares to step out of Tihar jail, the Bharatiya Janata Party responded to the Supreme Court order to grant him bail with a sharp jibe at the senior Congress leader.
“So finally Chidambaram too joins the long list of “OOBC (Out On Bail Club)” in the Congress,” BJP leader Sambit Patra said, tweeting his party’s first response to the 74-year-old leader’s imminent release from jail.
The BJP leader’s swipe echoes Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s frequent attacks at the Congress and its leadership for criminal cases that accuse them of wrongdoing and corruption. “At present, their top leadership is on bail vis-a-vis a major scam,” PM Modi wrote in a blog ahead of the national elections this year.
Also Watch l Chidambaram gets bail in INX media case; BJP & Cong engage in twitter war
In the run-up to the Rajasthan state elections last year, PM Modi had said that some people were calling the Congress ‘bail gaadi’, not bullock cart, “because some of its top leaders and former ministers are on bail”.
“He (Chidambaram) joins the coveted Club,” Patra said before listing Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Robert Vadra, Bhupinder Hooda and Shashi Tharoor as some members of this group.
Chidambaram was arrested in August in the INX Media case, first by the Central Bureau of Investigation and later, the Enforcement Directorate. He was the finance minister in 2007 when the CBI alleges irregularities in the government’s clearance to to INX Media group to receive foreign funds.
Chidambaram had been granted bail by the Supreme Court in one case in October. On Wednesday, a three-judge bench accepted his appeal for bail. By the time that he would step out of Tihar jail later today, the former minister would have spent 106 days in custody.
Chidambaram’s family and the Congress have alleged that the arrest and the case against him was driven by vendetta politics; because he was one of the sharpest critic of the government.
{{/usCountry}}Chidambaram’s family and the Congress have alleged that the arrest and the case against him was driven by vendetta politics; because he was one of the sharpest critic of the government.
{{/usCountry}}Union Minister Nitin Gadkari rejected the charge. He told news agency ANI that the BJP-led national coalition had never been vindictive. The Union road transport minister said there was evidence against Chidambaram. “Now the matter is sub-judice and court will take the decision,” he said.
The minister also reminded the Congress about the cases filed against BJP leaders when it was in power. “On the other hand when Chidambaram ji was Home Minister during Congress rule, he filed false cases against me, he also filed false cases against Modi ji and Amit Shah ji. Later, we all were proved innocent,” he said, according to ANI.