Defending Qureshi, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala retaliated against the BJP while questioning their decision to hire an advocate in the Italian marine fiasco, who is now representing Pakistan in the Kishenganga Project case in Kashmir.
Lashing out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its accusations at the Congress replacing former solicitor general of India Harish Salve with Pakistani counsel Khawar Qureshi in the 2004 Dabhol Power Corporation matter, party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala hit back at the BJP and defended Khawar Qureshi.
He told ANI: "Khawar Qureshi, who is being portrayed as a terrorist, has been a part of the Queen's Counsel (QC) since 1990. He is an additional high court judge in the United Kingdom, and also a professor at the Cambridge University. He was appointed by the Indian government when two investors from Enron filed a case against India at the International Court of Arbitration in 2004.”
Defending Qureshi, Surjewala retaliated against the BJP while questioning their decision to hire an advocate in the Italian marine fiasco, who is now representing Pakistan in the Kishenganga Project case in Kashmir.
Developing his scathing attack, Surjewala further questioned the involvement of Defence Minister Arun Jaitley in defending Union Carbide India Ltd., the place where the infamous Bhopal Gas Tragedy took place in 1984.
"Over 3,500 people were killed in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy in Union Carbide, whose advocate is Arun Jaitley. I would like to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP to justify this first, before questioning Qureshi and the UPA," said Surjewala.
Putting a stamp of confirmation over the UPA government’s move to replace former solicitor general of India Harish Salve with Pakistan counsel Khawar Qureshi to represent India’s stance in the Dabhol Power Corporation case back in 2004, senior lawyer Aman Sinha said that Salve indeed told him he was counselling for the matter initially, but was later replaced.
“Harish Salve told me that he was appearing initially. When the Congress Government came, he was replaced by Khawar Qureshi, the same counsel who he defeated at the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) recent hearing moving to stall the execution of Kulbhushan Jadhav,” Sinha told ANI.
Earlier, the BJP accused the Congress of being Pakistan's voice on a host of issues.
BJP spokesperson G V L Narsimha Rao said the party must explain why its government hired Khawar Qureshi in the "very sensitive" Enron case.
The Congress-led UPA government had changed the legal team representing India in the arbitration case against the US firm over the controversial Dabhol power project, he said.
This was a question linked to "patriotism", Rao told reporters.
"What was the compulsion that the UPA government hired Qureshi?... Over the last few years we have seen several incidents of the Congress speaking in support of Pakistan. It was speaking in Pakistan's voice on the surgical strikes as well," Rao told reporters.
Citing the example of Harish Salve, who was the lead counsel for India at the ICJ this week, he said it was surprising that the UPA government could not find an Indian lawyer to represent the country in such a sensitive case.
Rao named Congress leaders Salman Khurshid and Mani Shankar Aiyar as instances of Congress leaders allegedly speaking in support of Pakistan.
The ICJ this week stayed the execution of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested by Pakistan on charges of espionage and subversive activities. While Pakistan claims he was nabbed from Balochistan, India maintains that he was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Indian Navy.
With inputs from PTI and ANI
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