Smriti joins issue with Chidambaram, says Congress leader has proved her 'argument'

Union Minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani has joined issue with senior Congress leader P Chidambaram for his remarks that the government was trying to silence the voice of dissent by filing 'false cases and denying bail' against those opposing the Narendra Modi-led dispensation.

"The point I was trying to make at the press conference has been proved by Mr Chidambaram's tweets. I had said will Congress have the audacity to proclaim in the street that 'Bharat Tede Tukde Honge'. By his tweets, Mr Chidambaram has proved to the proved to the country that yes, Congress will stand by the Tukde Tukde gang," Irani said.

Maintaining that while Mr Chidambaram has suggested that these would be opposition voices, she further said, ".....ask any political party which might not meet eye to eye with the BJP, will any political party in the country proclaim and say that Bharat Tedey Tukde Honge (India will break up)".

"Is Mr Chidambaram through his tweet indicating that the entire episode was staged with the direction of the Congress party or with the support of the Congress party," she told a private TV channel Earlier, Mr Chidambaram through his tweet tried to slam the Union Minister Ms Irani and the NDA regime.

"The Smriti Irani doctrine: 'File false cases, deny bail, lock them up and silence  opposition voices'. Long live democracy! Does the honourable lady know that when accusations are made 'bail is the rule and jail is the exception'?," the senior Congress leader had written in the micro blogging site.

At her media conference at the BJP headquarters on Friday, Ms Irani had lashed out at the Congress president Rahul Gandhi for 'standing in public' with the 'Tukde Tukde' disruptive gang in 2016 in JNU campus.

Ms Irani also dared Congress president Rahul Gandhi and the party to "repeat that slogan against India".

"Let us ask the Congress president and Congress party would they have the guts to stand out in public places and repeat that slogan (Bharat Tedey Tukde Honge) against India and against the interests of India," she has said.

The argument between the two leaders came in the wake of the charge sheet filed against Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and 8 others by the Delhi Police in 2016 JNU Sedition case, for chanting the slogan 'Bharat Tedey Tukde Honge'.