Chidambaram rubbishes BJP's allegations

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram rubbished the BJP's allegations against him on his "illegal overseas assets" to the tune of $3 billion.

"The president of the richest political party in India is dreaming of billions of dollars! Bring the money back and put Rs 15 lakhs in the account of every Indian as you promised,” Chidambaram, the former Finance Minister, said.

He was reacting to BJP president Amit Shah's charge that the Income Tax department had estimated the illegal overseas assets owned by were to the tune of $3 billion.

Chidambaram also made light of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's charges against him over the purported illegal overseas assets.

Hours after Nirmala read out the "chargesheet" against Chidambaram at a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, the Congress leader hit back with a jibe that the defence minister should be appointed as the "lawyer of the Income Tax Department".

"The buzz in Delhi is that Ms Nirmala Sitharaman will be removed as defence minister and appointed as a lawyer of the I-T department. Welcome to the bar, Ms Sitharaman," he tweeted.