The Congress on Wednesday appeared standing in solidarity behind senior leader P Chidambaram as it vowed to stand by his "quest for truth" in an official tweet.
"A govt that persecutes its citizens for speaking truth to power is only reiterating its own cowardly nature. @PChidambaram_IN is an extremely qualified & respected leader, he has served this nation with dedication & humility. We stand by his quest for truth no matter what," the Congress tweeted.
Many senior leaders like Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid, Shashi Tharoor and Digvijaya Singh also threw their weight behind Chidambaram after Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and former president Rahul Gandhi tweeted in the favour of former union home and finance minister.
Soon after Priyanka's frontal assault claiming that Chidambaram was being shamefully hunted down for unhesitatingly speaking the truth to power and exposing the failures of Modi government, her brother Rahul tweeted, "Modi's Govt is using the ED, CBI & sections of a spineless media to character assassinate Mr Chidambaram. I strongly condemn this disgraceful misuse of power."
However, there were murmurs of discomfort within the party as there was no word from the party president Sonia Gandhi and leaders like Ahmed Patel who otherwise have been vocal critics of the BJP.
BJP remains silent
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| Most BJP leaders largely maintained stoic silence on the issue |
| Party spokesperson Amit Malviya in a jibe at Congress said that the party which stood by (Robert) Vadra, would certainly back Chidambaram |
Many of the opposition parties barring DMK such as Trinamool Congress (TMC), Samajwadi Party (SP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) also appeared to be hedging their bets as they refrained from commenting anything on the developments leading to tightening of noose around Congress stalwart.
Congress sources said though they did approach opposition parties for solidarity, the response of most political parties barring the DMK, an alliance partner of Congress in Tamil Nadu, was lukewarm.
Backing Chidambaram, DMK chief M K Stalin accused the BJP-led central government of pursuing political vendetta.
"As regards this issue, I have clearly learnt that these (actions) are happening due to political vendetta," said Stalin.
While the big wigs of the BJP largely maintained stoic silence on the issue and at the most said that the law will take its won course, party spokesperson Amit Malviya in a jibe at Congress saying that the party which stood by Vadra, backing Chidambaram is natural.
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