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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday took Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram to task for reading out his son's letter in Parliament. The BJP continued its protest against Chidambaram in Parliament over the Aircel-Maxis deal, in which the former is alleged to have given "clearance that was not appropriate" when he was Finance Minister in 2006. The BJP submitted a notice for the suspension of Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha today. In the Lok Sabha, Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj questioned why Chidambaram read out his son's letter in Parliament on Thursday. "Today, the Leader of Opposition, Sushma Swaraj, wanted to know in the Lok Sabha that under which rule did P. Chidambaram (Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram) read out his son's letter before the House. Here (in Lok Sabha), the MPs are not given the permission to speak and Chidambaram is reading out his son's letter. He (Karti Chidambaram) is not even a parliamentarian, but despite that Chidambaram is reading out his letter in the Parliament," said BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain. "The Parliament is going to complete its sixty years, but never ever had any parliamentarian read out his son's letter in the House. He is the first minister, who was reading out his son's letter before the parliamentarians. People come in parliament after devoting their whole life, but his son is such a great man that his words were being read out to the parliamentarians," he added. Hussain further said the BJP wanted an explanation from the UPA Government on the issue. The BJP had on Thursday demanded the resignation of Chidambaram on this issue, forcing an adjournment of both Houses. Repeating the statement that he had made inside parliament, Chidambaram earlier said: "This morning (Thursday), an honorable member of parliament (Yashwant Sinha) making a statement in the Lok Sabha, making an allegation against me and my family members. No notice was given to me. Either Rule 352 or 353. I took the permission of the chair to make a statement at 2 p.m. that the BJP and some others, whereas in the din, obviously they didn't wish to hear the reply. They tried to prevent me from making statement. The chair allowed me to make a statement." Chidambaram quoted Karti, as saying: "I categorically state in this House that neither I, nor any member of family, had acquired or hold any shares of the telecom firm Maxis. The allegations against me are completely baseless." Karti Chidambaram further said in his statement: "It was 'deeply regretted' that the privileged forum of parliament is misused to make wild and reckless allegations against a private citizen." "I categorically state that neither I, nor any member of my family, have acquired or hold any share in any telecom company. In particular, I categorically state that neither I, nor any member of my family, have acquired or hold any share in either Aircel or Maxis," Karti said. His remarks came after BJP leader Yashwant Sinha raised the issue of Aircel- Maxis deal, and alleged that Karti benefited from the deal when Chidambaram was finance minister. "Prima facie what happened was a big scam and government should not hush it up," Sinha said, demanding a statement from Mukherjee, who is the Leader of the House, as also the Finance Minister. Earlier, Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy, who had sought an investigation against Chidambaram for his alleged role in the 2G scam, made fresh allegations of corruption against Chidambaram's Karthi. In a three-page letter dated April 24 to the Prime Minister, Swamy said that Chidambaram should be asked to resign as Home Minister and that the CBI should include him and his son, Karti, in its investigation on the Aircel-Maxis deal.

BJP pulls up Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram for reading out son's letter in Parliament