Nirmala Sitharaman to become I-T dept lawyer, P Chidambaram hits back

Former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram hit back at Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today with a tongue-in-cheek tweet, saying that there was a buzz she would be removed from the cabinet and appointed a lawyer of the Income Tax department.

Chidambaram's dig on Twitter came soon after the Defence Minister wondered if the filing of charge sheets by the I-T department against his family members was the Congress party's "Nawaz Sharif moment".

The Defence Minister was referring to the Pakistan Supreme Court's decision disqualifying its former prime minister from holding office because of non-disclosure of assets and income earned abroad.

The Congress leader reminded the ruling BJP of its failure to bring back black money from abroad and deposit Rs 1.5 million (15 lakh) in every Indian's bank account, as promised by it before the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

The buzz in Delhi is that Ms Nirmala Sitharaman will be removed as Defence Minister and appointed as lawyer of the Income-tax department. Welcome to the bar, Ms Sitharaman,he tweeted.

The president of the richest political party in India is dreaming of billions of dollars! Bring the money back and put Rs 1.5 million (15 lakh) in the account of every Indian as you promised," he tweeted, without naming BJP president Amit Shah.

The Income Tax department on May 11 filed charge sheets against Chidambaram's wife Nalini, son Karti, daughter-in-law Srinidhi and a firm under the Black Money Act for allegedly not disclosing their foreign assets.

Sitharaman also asked if Congress president Rahul Gandhi would investigate the issue involving his party's senior leader.