Cowards Shamefully Hunting Down Chidambaram for Exposing Failures of This Govt, Says Priyanka Gandhi

New Delhi: Slamming the CBI and Enforcement Directorate’s push to arrest P Chidambaram in the INX Media case, senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday said the former union minister was being “shamefully hunted down” because he speaks truth to power and exposes the failures of the government.

In a strongly-worded statement on Twitter, Gandhi said the Congress will continue to stand with Chidambaram even as a CBI team paid a third visit to his house in Delhi’s Jor Bagh area.

Saying that Chidambaram served our nation with loyalty for decades, the Congress leader said he “unhesitatingly speaks truth to power and exposes the failures of this government, but the truth is inconvenient to cowards so he is being shamefully hunted down”.

“We stand by him and will continue to fight for the truth no matter what the consequences are,” she added.

The former minister was on Tuesday denied anticipatory bail by the Delhi High Court, which said that he “appears to be the kingpin” in the INX Media Case. Hours after that, the CBI and ED landed at his residence, but he was not at home and has remained incommunicado since.

His special leave petition seeking anticipatory bail will be taken up by the Supreme Court today.

The Congress has questioned the actions of probe agencies and asked what the tearing hurry was when the Supreme Court was slated to hear his appeal on Wednesday morning.

Congress senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said, "We fail to understand what is going to happen in the night. Heavens are not going to open up. Mr Chidambaram is an eminent person and a law abiding citizen. What we have been witnessing in the last few years is selective targeting and politics of vendetta, mainly against the leaders of the opposition."

He said it is not the Congress leaders alone, as leaders of various non-BJP parties like the Trinamool Congress, RJD, SP, DMK and some others have been targeted. "It is a long list. As if the BJP, when there were serious allegations against their own leaders, including its chief ministers, who are in office, the same agencies go silent on them," he said.

Sharma said the manner in which the CBI teams and personnel have descended on his residence raises fundamental questions, as the Chief Justice of India had said it will be heard Wednesday morning and they should wait for the final order. "It is only a cancellation of bail, not of conviction. It is not a heinous crime. It is an alleged economic offence," he said.