By IANS,
New Delhi : Blaming Home Minister P. Chidambaram for the crackdown on its workers here Tuesday, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday said he had been cornered on the issue of corruption and should resign.
“We want Chidambaram’s resignation and there will be no compromise on the issue,” BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters outside parliament.
“We have cornered Chidambaram on the issue of corruption, so he is irritated with the BJP. In yesterday’s (Tuesday’s) rally, it was the instructions of Chidambaram and not that of the Delhi police commissioner that was being followed,” Hussain said.
“Chidambaram himself said beat them up, so the baton charge yesterday was totally on Chidambaram’s instructions,” he added.
Party leader Gopinath Munde said moral responsibility for the crackdown was with the home minister.
“They lathi-charged journalists and the youth, we demand Chidambaram take moral responsibility and resign,” Munde told reporters.
“He is responsible for this, the youth who came to protest against price rise and corruption, baton-charging them, using tear-gas shells… he should take moral responsibility for that,” he said.
There were clashes between members of BJP’s youthwing and Delhi Police Tuesday when the BJP was staging a protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, close to Parliament House.
Police lobbed teargas shells, used water cannons, and resorted to baton-charge to disperse the demonstrators.