Finance minister P Chidambaram attacks BJP for ‘cherrypicking’ on Adarsh scam

Finance minister P Chidambaram on Thursday attacked BJP for “cherrypicking” on Maharashtra government’s statement that no criminality was revealed against home minister Sushilkumar Shinde and some other politicians in the Adarsh housing society scam.

“You can’t cherrypick and choose what suits you. One must pick the entire decision in toto. One can’t cherrypick,” Chidambaram said.

His reply came when reporters sought his comments on BJP’s demand for the resignation of Shinde, a former chief minister of the state, for his alleged involvement in the scam.

Maharashtra government, after being nudged by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, partially accepted the Adarsh scam judicial panel report and announced action against indicted bureaucrats but gave a clean chit to politicians barring former chief minister Ashok Chavan, saying “no criminality was revealed against them”.

After the Maharashtra cabinet rejected the report before tabling it in the assembly, Gandhi had said at a press conference here that “personally, I don’t agree with that decision. They (Maharashtra) should reconsider that.” Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, who was present at the press conference then, had later said he would consult his Cabinet before taking a decision.