Chidambaram rejects Jaitley's charge against Rahul Gandhi

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram rejected the BJP's charge that 'jehadis' and Maoists have earned party president Rahul Gandhi's sympathy and said that the Congress was stoutly opposed to the two groups.

Taking to Twitter, he said that the charge made by Union Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday was "laughable and absurd" and recalled how the UPA government fought 'jehadis' in Jammu and Kashmir and brought down violence there.

The former union home minister also recalled how the Congress almost lost its entire leadership in Chhattisgarh to Maoists violence, when its top leaders including Vidya Charan Shukla and Nand Kumar Patel died along with others in a blast ahead of the last assembly election in Chhattisgarh in 2013.

"The allegation that jehadists and Maoists have earned the sympathy of Rahul Gandhi is laughable and absurd. Congress is stoutly opposed to the two groups," he said on Twitter.

Chidambaram also said, "Who can forget that Congress practically lost its entire leadership in Chhattisgarh to Maoist violence?"

"Under UPA, the government fought the jehadists in J&K and brought down the level of violence substantially," he added.

In a blog, Jaitley regretted that the front human rights organisations which have been taken over by the ultra-left have never spoken about the deprivation of the human rights of the innocent citizens who are victims of their violence.

"They have never a tear to shed in the indiscriminate killing of the security personnel," he said.

Even though the Congress Party historically and ideologically would have been opposed to such human rights groups, they have earned a sympathy in Rahul Gandhi's heart, Jaitley said, adding that Gandhi had no qualms about joining those who raised subversive slogans at JNU and Hyderabad.

PTI