JOIN USFinance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday targeted the Congress on the Ishrat Jahan case, accusing it of unbaring the entire security apparatus to fix a leader Narendra Modi.
Intervening in the debate in the Rajya Sabha on the motion of thanks to the President’s speech, Jaitley also countered Opposition criticism of the government on issues like intolerance and foreign policy even as he sought their cooperation, saying it is not the time when one needs an “obstructive environment”.
As the two contradicting affidavits of the UPA regime on whether Jahan was a LeT terrorist triggered a fresh controversy, he said it was not a simple case of changing affidavits. The then UPA government also changed the composition of SIT on a couple of occasions.
“You colluded with those who were actually involved in the encounter and no chargesheet was filed against them. Then targeted the opponent. In the process, you unbared the entire security apparatus of India because you wanted to fix a political leader,” he said without naming Modi, who was then the chief minister of Gujarat. For them, he said, “this is not intolerance but rule of law.” Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad countered Jaitley, saying intelligence agencies are not sacrosanct. Reacting to criticism on foreign policy, he said, “we are compelling Pakistan to own up to an attack on India. That has never happened before.”
Jaitley also raked up the 'Sharm el-Sheikh' episode, saying “you agreed to hold talks with Pakistan irrespective of whether terrorism stops or not.” Seeking opposition cooperation, he said “this is the time when we don’t need obstructive democracy. Our approach will have to be to work together. This is the spirit with which this government needs to function.”