BJP rakes up Vadra as Priyanka defends Chidambaram

As Congress cried "political vendetta" over investigating agencies stepping up action against P Chidambaram, the BJP on Wednesday revived memories of corruption cases against Robert Vadra and mocked Priyanka Gandhi for coming to the defence of the former finance minister.

"Priyanka Vadra’s support for P Chidambaram is quite natural. After all, she has the experience of standing by Robert Vadra too, who is also facing several investigations for serious economic offences," tweeted the in-charge of the BJP's national Information and Technology cell Amit Malviya.

This was a counter to Priyanka Gandhi's all-out support for Chidambaram after the CBI and the ED knocked his doors prompting her to say that the former finance minister is being "shamefully hunted down" as he "unhesitatingly speaks truth to power and exposes the failures of this government but the truth is inconvenient to cowards".

The BJP's Vadra jibe came at a time when a matter related to money laundering case against him came up in Delhi High Court. The Delhi High Court on Wednesday gave Vadra four weeks to file a rejoinder to the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) reply to his petition seeking quashing of certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain rejected the Congress' charge of vendetta. "If he has done something fishy, he must face consequences. Probe agencies do not work at the government's behest. They have powers to act independently," he said.

Another BJP spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao said Chidambaram was acting like fugitive economic offenders Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi. Dragging Gandhi family into the row, Rao said it was Gandhi family that gave Chidambaram a free hand to operate in the INX media case.