New Delhi: A day after former finance and home minister P. Chidambaram’s arrest, a cagey silence prevails among the Congress’ allies and other opposition parties with few condemning the CBI’s move.
Only two Congress allies have spoken up against the arrest, with Mamata Banerjee questioning the manner of it and M.K. Stalin calling it a “shame”.
The CBI arrested Chidambaram for questioning in the INX Media case late Wednesday as dramatic scenes unfolded, including officers scaling the walls of his house.
Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal CM, spoke out against the move Thursday, saying the manner in which Chidambaram was arrested was “sad and depressing”.
“Sometimes the process is incorrect. I’m not talking about legality, but Chidambaram is a senior politician, he is a former finance minister & home minister. The way his matter has been handled, that is very depressing,” Banerjee told the media.
The Congress’ Tamil Nadu ally, the DMK, was perhaps most vocal.
“I too saw how CBI jumped the wall and arrested him… It’s a matter of shame for India, it is political vendetta. Chidambaram had asked for anticipatory bail but he was arrested, it’s condemnable,” DMK chief Stalin said Thursday.
Senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel and Ghulam Nabi Azad are believed to have reached out to a few political parties to galvanise support against the BJP’s “use” of the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate to settle “political vendettas”.
“They are all scared,” a senior Congress leader told ThePrint. “How can someone who is limping come out and support others?”
Another senior Congress leader said: “They fear they may be prosecuted next.”
Also read: Chidambaram spends first night in CBI custody, his 2 concerns — clean lockup & hygienic food
Silence of the allies
The most disconcerting quiet for the Congress is the silence of its Maharshtra and Bihar allies — the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Neither NCP chief Sharad Pawar nor his nephew Ajit has spoken out against the arrest yet.
RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, who runs the party since his father Lalu Prasad was jailed, has also not commented.
Akhilesh Yadav, whose Samajwadi Party fought the UP assembly and Lok Sabha elections with the Congress, skirted the issue, saying the BJP is registering false cases.
“This is a battle of papers and it should be fought. If the government is after you, they have all the powers. The police, army and all the departments are under the government. You can fight the government only if you are strong with paperwork,” Yadav had said Wednesday.
But, Mayawati, whose Bahujan Samaj Party was also a part of the UP alliance for the Lok Sabha polls, has gone completely silent.
The Congress’ Jharkhand allies, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, too have not spoken on the issue yet.
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