Special Judge O P Saini extended the protection after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sought three-weeks' time to argue on their anticipatory bail plea, at which the lawyers appearing for Chidambarams requested for extension of interim protection granted to them earlier.
"According to me, the Election Commission has largely failed the people of India. It has been a silent spectator to the excesses of the BJP, Mr Modi's utterances and the enormous amount of money that has been spent by the BJP," Chidambaram said.
A Delhi court on Friday extended till May 6 the interim protection from arrest granted to former Union minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti in the Aircel-Maxis case.
I-T raids on opposition leaders in Tamil Nadu ahead of polls has created a furore. On Tuesday the officials raided DMK leader Kanimozhi. Today, P Chidambaram has lashed out against the income tax raids and blamed government of misusing its machinery.
The former finance minister also said the scheme showed that the BJP was living by the “truth that desperate times require desperate measures”.
He also says that miracles could have been performed with the kind of majority that the BJP got on its own (282) and with its allies (336) in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014.
Chidambaram also thanked Finance Minister Piyush Goyal for "copying" the Congress declaration that the poor will have the first right to resources of the country.
“One more venerable institution died on 29 January 2019 owing to malicious negligence by the government,” Chidambaram said in his tweet.
On September 18 last year it had allowed Karti to travel to the UK from September 20-30. Karti is facing criminal cases which are being investigated by the ED and the CBI.
"What cause are we serving or actually hurting? asks the Finance Minister. He knows the answer. The cause of justice," the Congress leader said taking a jibe at Jaitley.
Both CBI and the Enforcement Directorate are investigating the foreign investment clearance granted to the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006 and the INX Media in 2007 when Chidambaram was the finance minister in the UPA government.
The Congress has been accusing the BJP of taking hasty decisions to woo voters just ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Chidambaram said the goal was to defeat the BJP and expressed hope that all secular, liberal parties would come together to fight the elections.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini put up the matter for February 1 after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, told the court that the ongoing probe was about to be completed.
The former home and finance minister, in a series of tweets, claimed whatever Faesal had said was an indictment of the Narendra Modi government.
"With funds not available, work has completely stopped in many panchayats," he claimed.
Shooting a series of tweets, Chidambaram said: "Until yesterday a single standard rate of GST was a stupid idea. Since yesterday, it is the declared goal of the government!"
Alleging that the Gandhi family had been enjoying privileges for four generations, Modi said the court order was the "victory of the honest".
According to the I-T Department, Chidambaram, wife Nalini, son Karti failed to disclose a property they jointly own in Cambridge in the UK, worth Rs 5.37 crore.
Sabha elections 2019: The Congress was ushering a new way of drafting a poll manifesto, he said.
