Times of India: New Delhi: Tuesday,
April 19, 2016.
The Ishrat
Jahan controversy flared afresh with the 51-page home ministry file on the case
recording that former home minister P Chidambaram had signed the original
affidavit describing the Mumbra teen as part of a Lashkar module.
The latest
revelations, telecast by Times Now, mean that Chidambaram approved the original
affidavit as well as the one amended within two months in 2009 that stated
there was no conclusive evidence against Ishrat.
The RTI-based
report saw Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman accuse Congress chief Sonia Gandhi
and vice-president Rahul Gandhi of having conspired with Chidambaram to target
Narendra Modi who was then Gujarat CM. Chidambaram retorted by saying BJP was
ignoring the "real" issue of the "fake" encounter in which
Ishrat was killed.
BJP on Monday
hit out against Congress and P Chidambaram as it emerged from an RTI reply that
the former home minister had signed the original affidavit describing Ishrat
Jahan as part of a Lashkar module. "You underplayed a terror plot that
could eliminate (Modi)," Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
Responding to
the allegation, Chidambaram said a second affidavit was filed after thorough
consultation with the then home secretary and the attorney general. "My
public statements on why the second affidavit was filed after due and full
consultation with the home secretary and the attorney general are
self-explanatory.
I have
nothing to add," he said in a statement. TOI had on March 3 first reported
on Chidambaram making changes before clearing the second affidavit. On March
10, TOI also reported that Chidambaram's notings and other documents were
missing from the record. Chidambaram had responded to reports that he changed
the second affidavit saying he had made "small editorial changes".
He had also
said the first affidavit was an incomplete interpretation of facts that needed
to be corrected. But the file papers reveal that not only did Chidambaram amend
the second affidavit to drop references to Ishrat's LeT link, he initialled the
first affidavit which said the Lashkar team the Mumbra teenager was part of had
wanted to kill Modi.
Former home
secretary GK Pillai had on February 28 told TOI that Chidambaram had personally
made changes to drop the terror link, and only then sent the file to him for
approval. Chidambaram later accepted having made "editorial changes"
to the original affidavit and justified them by claiming that this was done to
correct anomalies. As per the cover note of the first affidavit shared by Times
Now, when Chidambaram approved the first affidavit on July 29, 2009,
"updated based on IB input and draft affidavit provided by IB", he
made no mention of any anomalies nor did he object to the recording of Ishrat
and her three associates' affiliation with LeT.
"Chidambaram
is caught red-handed and now he cannot escape ... He has not only misused his
position as home minister but also abused it by putting aside all inputs of
intelligence agencies (revealing Ishrat as a close aide of Javed Shaikh alias
Pranesh Pillai who was working for LeT)," minister of state for home Kiren
Rijiju said.
Accusing
Chidambaram of creating bad blood between agencies (CBI and IB), Rijuju said
with one stroke of his pen, the former minister had sought to discredit an
intelligence operation to track and neutralise an LeT module.
"This
kind of action demoralized genuine intelligence and police officers who have
dedicated their service and life for national security," he said.
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