New Delhi:
Home Minister P Chidambaram is in the BJP's line of fire once again this morning. The opposition wants him to resign for allegedly misusing his office to help a Delhi businessman he once represented as a lawyer.
The BJP shouted out an answer Mr Chidambaram tried to give during question hour in the Lok Sabha. The opposition says it will boycott Mr Chidambaram in Parliament.
The BJP's Yashwant Sinha demanded that a privilege notice against Mr Chidambaram be accepted, for commenting on the controversy outside the House. Speaker Meira Kumar said, "I have received the notice. I will consider it and come back to you."
Last week, Mr Chidambaram told reporters that he was "deeply hurt" by the accusation that he asked for three FIRs to be dropped against SP Gupta, a former client. Congress spokespersons have clarified that Mr Chidambaram never met Mr Gupta, even when he was his lawyer in 1999.
Mr Gupta was accused of forgery and cheating. This May, he petitioned the Home Ministry, asking for the cases against him to be withdrawn. A letter from the Home Ministry to the Delhi Police made that request. Mr Chidambaram's aides, and the minister, have clarified that he did not review that note, even though the letter had a noting declaring that it had been approved by him. The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Tejinder Khanna, had then ordered the police cases against Mr Gupta to be dropped. But he reversed this decision last week.
The BJP has also been asking for Mr Chidambaram to be sacked from the Cabinet for his alleged complicity in the telecom scam. The opposition contends that because Mr Chidambaram was Finance Minister in 2008, he endorsed or allowed the decisions that A Raja took, as Telecom Minister, which resulted in India's largest swindle. Mr Raja is in jail for masterminding the scam that saw valuable licenses and spectrum being given to ineligible companies.