BJP, Congress spar over Chidambaram 'undeclared' assets

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 disqualif 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 that, “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.”