Chidambaram's arrest had sobering effect: BJP leader's dig at Congress

New Delhi: In a dig at Congress leaders pitching for not "demonising" Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP's Amit Malviya on Friday said the arrest of the former finance minister P Chidambaram had a "sobering effect" on his party colleagues. Malviya, the IT cell head of the party, said law catching up with Chidambaram has made other Congress leaders to start "singing praises" of the prime minister.

"Law catching up with Sonia Gandhi's courtier seems to have had a sobering effect on other Congress leaders, including Chidambaram's lawyer, who like a canary, are suddenly singing praises of Prime Minister Modi," he said.

Senior Congress leaders, including Abhishek Singhvi, who is representing Chidamabram in court and Shashi Tharoor came out in support of their party colleague Jairam Ramesh who said that "demonising" the prime minister was wrong and he should be praised for the right things he do.

While Singhvi said Modi's acts must be judged issue-wise, not person-wise, Tharoor said praising Modi for doing right things would lend credibility to the opposition's criticism of him.