Chidambaram diverting public attention to save himself: BJP

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram is diverting public attention to save himself from his alleged acts of corruption, said a host of senior BJP leaders and Union Ministers on Sunday.

Speaking to ANI, BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said, "Congress leaders are making such statement to divert the public attention from the investigation going on against them for their involvement in corruption."

Speaking at an event, former Finance Minister Chidambaram had said that he was not sure even if Lord Hanuman had a 52-inch chest.

The remark could be seen as an apparent jibe on Prime Minister Narendra Modi who during the 2014 election campaign had declared at a rally in Uttar Pradesh that "a 56-inch chest" is a pre-requisite to convert India's most populous state into one as developed as Gujarat.

Taking on Chidambaram, Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh also said the Congress leaders are making this kind of statements as elections are approaching.

"Congress leaders are stooping too low because they do not have anything to counter against five years' of development and progress made under the current dispensation," he said.

"It is been a constant endeavor by the Congress leadership to falsify the positive development happening in any area and try to manufacture a fictitious discourse as the election draws closer," Singh told ANI.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, while lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government, said: "The Congress has reduced itself to the level of a joke with its repeated jibes on its opponents. It has no idea about the country's economy. Congress party has no idea that the nation is moving in the direction of development.