Former Home Minister P Chidambaram today came under attack from BJP in Parliament with Ministers Arun Jaitley and M Venkaiah Naidu frowning upon comments attributed to him regarding Afzal Guru, who was hanged for terror attack on Parliament in 2001.
Jaitley, while speaking in the Rajya Sabha on the JNU row, asked Congress not to give "respectability" to anti-Indian protests and referred to the comment by a "distinguished former colleague" supporting the arguments of those lauding Guru, an apparent reference to Chidambaram.
In the Lok Sabha, Naidu said, without taking the name of Chidambaram, that "nobody has the right to express such an opinion and create dissatisfaction among people."
Left members were seen asking the Minister as to why he was not taking the name of Chidambaram.
Chidambaram has been quoted as having said in a newspaper interview that he felt it was possible to hold an "honest opinion" that the Afzal Guru case was "perhaps not correctly decided" and that there were "grave doubts about the extent of his involvement" in the Parliament attack. Afzal Guru was hanged on February 9, 2013.
Chidambaram was Union home minister when Afzal Guru's mercy plea was rejected by the previous UPA government in 2011.
Naidu said it was not correct on the part of former Home Minister to express such an opinion in the Afzal Guru case.
"Can any university in the USA observe death aniversary of Osama Bin Laden", Naidu wondered asserting that JNU-type incidents would not be tolerated.
"We will do everything to preserve unity and integrity of this country," he said observing that people should not sympathise with anti-nationals.
