High-profile Congress politician and former Union Minister P
Chidambaram is behind bars in what is prominently a corruption
case, also involving a controversial media entity. While it is natural
for the Congress party to come to his defence, cautiously of course,
and paint the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) action as an act of
“persecution”, cited facts of the case point to entirely different
directions. The present saga for Chidambaram comes on top of several
other case investigations in the past few years against the former
minister and his family members. Chidambaram’s wife was among those
who were referred to in the Kolkata-centred Saradha chit fund scam in
which several TMC political bigwigs too were prominently involved. Son
Karti Chidambaram is being investigated in more than one case,
the shadow of which leapt up to father Chidambaram himself, besides
the INX Media case.
Now, CBI and ED sleuths say they have come up with evidence to claim
that Karti purchased a tennis club in Spain and cottages in the UK as
also assets in key cities in India with bribe-money linked to his
father. While as minister, Chidambaram famously kept key players in
the media close to him to make sure his questionable activities would
not come out in to the open. The loss of power for the Congress also
meant Chidambaram and his family were increasingly in media focus as
investigations progressed. To say that Chidambaram is being targeted
now because he as Home Minister in the UPA he had given the nod for
arrest of present home minister Amit Shah is to simplify the matter.
The first five years of the Modi government did not see much of action
against corruption, and rather investigations went on and on, other
than effecting some arrests as in the VIP chopper scam.
Chidambaram’s present saga should be a signal to the large army of
corrupt politicians as also wayward bureaucrats that nemesis could
catch up with them sooner or later. Chidambaram is still a very
influential individual. Chances are that he would get some relief when
the Supreme Court takes up his anticipatory bail plea. Even then, with
all his connections, he ended up in jail – which generally targeted only those from the ordinary and disadvantaged sections of the
society. Hope is that the Modi government and its investigative arms would
show the same seriousness in pursuing all other corruption cases
involving high-profile politicians and bureaucrats irrespective of
their links.