‘Congress' Nawaz Sharif moment?’ BJP on cases against PC’s family

NEW DELHI: BJP on Sunday took a dig at Congress over cases filed against former finance minister P Chidambaram’s family, with defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman wondering if this was the Congress party’s “Nawaz Sharif moment”.

The minister was referring to the Pakistan supreme court disqualifying its former PM from holding office because of non-disclosure of assets and income earned abroad. “The parallels cannot be missed in this case. I am wondering if for Congress party in India, we are seeing the Nawaz Sharif moment,” she told reporters.

The income tax department on May 11 filed cases against Chidambaram’s wife Nalini, son Karti, daughterin-law Srinidhi and a firm under the Black Money Act for allegedly not disclosing their foreign assets.


Sitharaman asked if Congress president Rahul Gandhi would investigate the matter involving his party’s senior leader. “The Congress party president, incidentally 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,” she said.

She pointed out that the Pakistan supreme court had disqualified Sharif from holding office because of not disclosing assets held in foreign countries.

Sitharaman said the law on black money was brought by the Modi government because it had pledged before the last Lok Sabha elections to crack down on illicit assets in India and abroad.