BJP targets Congress, rakes up Ishrat Jahan issue in Lok Sabha

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday raked up the Ishrat Jahan issue in the Lok Sabha, accusing a former Home Minister in the UPA of playing with national security by seeking to dub a terrorist as a martyr.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Kirit Somaiya sought to know whether an official committee, which went into the disappearance of four documents in the Ishrat Jahan issue, had submitted its report. He alleged that the former Home Minister had dubbed Ishrat as a terrorist in the first affidavit but changed it in the second affidavit.

Somaiya also took the name of another Home Minister in the UPA tenure. But Speaker Sumitra Mahajan disallowed the names to be taken in the House.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge sought to utilise the issue to take a dig at the government, wondering how the issue could be allowed to be raised as the matter as regards to the Uttarakhand President’s Rule is sub-judice. Mahajan remarked that the BJP member has only raised a question.

Facing fire from the BJP for alleged “flip-flop” on the Ishrat Jahan case, former Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday hit back saying that the affidavit controversy is only to “divert attention” from the real issue, which is whether it was a "fake" encounter or not.

Chidamabaram said on Twitter, "the affidavit controversy is only to divert attention from the real issue in the Ishrat Jahan case. Real issue is whether there was fake encounter & whether four people already in custody were killed in that fake encounter." 

Meanwhile, Union minister Kiren Rijiju also accused Chidambaram of making a “delirious attempt to escape” in the Ishrat controversy by saying an Under Secretary had signed the second affidavit contradicting an earlier submission that she  was an LeT activist.