New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday hit out at the Congress and other opposition parties for calling income tax raids in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka a political vendetta. In a blog, he said public funds were being siphoned off in both the states, inviting searches by the income tax authorities but none of them have yet replied to the charges on merit.

"It has become a routine practice to call any action against corruption as political vendetta. Claim of vendetta has never been a legitimate defence in corruption. Those who commit such large acts of corruption have to be judged on the merits of the action itself," the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader said.