Overview

• In a Rajya Sabha debate, Home Minister Amit Shah asserted Afzal Guru’s hanging was stalled during P. Chidambaram’s tenure as home minister.
• Chidambaram dismissed the assertion as a “mixture of insinuation, lie and distortion” in a statement on X.
• He noted that Guru’s wife filed a mercy petition in October 2006 and that it remained under presidential consideration until its rejection on February 3, 2013.
• Chidambaram highlighted that law bars carrying out a death sentence before a mercy petition is decided.
• Shah made the remarks during a special discussion on Operations Sindoor and Mahadev, where he also accused Congress of promoting a “saffron terror” narrative for electoral gain.