Former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram, when asked about his role in filing the second affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan case, said that it was done as the first affidavit was not right.
Former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram, when asked about his role in filing the second affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan case, said that it was done as the first affidavit was not right. He rubbished Union finance minister Arun Jaitley’s claims that the second affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan case was fraudulent as it had been vetted by the then Solicitor General of India. He said that the affidavit going missing was surprising, and could have been done on purpose.
Mr Chidambaram was speaking at the launch of his book, Standing Guard: A Year in Opposition, which is a collage of columns he has written over the last year.
“I personally saw and cleared the file thrice before and after it had been seen by the Solicitor General, who was the top law officer in the country. If there had been a problem in it, why would it have been filed at all Now we hear it has gone missing, which indicates that there must have been some motive behind its disappearance. I am sure the file will be available with some department,” he said. Incidentally, Mr Chidambaram has been accused of making the file disappear himself.
Mr Chidambaram also said that the nation had gone from acrimony to disintegration of social fabric in the past year owing to polarisation of people on various issues, increased intolerance and loss of people’s freedom.
Following the launch of his book, Mr Chidambaram, participated in a panel discussion moderated by Anil Dharkar with participants including Kumar Ketkar, Ronnie Screwvala and others, discussing issues flagged by Mr Chidambaram in his book. Replying to a question about his target audience, Mr Chidambaram said that the book was targeted at the ruling government and intellectuals who are intelligent but silent in the face of increasing intolerance in the nation. “Humour is dead and has been replaced by hate. We have always been an intolerant people that has led to discrimination on the lines of caste and gender. But in the past year, it has become more evident,” he said.
He suggested that Mr Modi promote two-way communication and be willing to field tough questions from the people — something he has avoided so far. “Mr Modi is very articulate but he is a prime example of a Tamil saying, which means that a ruler without a critic will fall even without an enemy. My work in the Opposition is not to obstruct the working of the government but to show a mirror to the government so that it realises its mistakes and changes its way of working accordingly,” he said.
Asked about Congress’ dynastic politics, Mr Chidambaram said that the appointment of Congress President Sonia Gandhi was done democratically and even today, 99 per cent of the party leaders would vote for her. “During the time of Pandit Nehru and Indira Gandhi, there have been party presidents who did not hail from the Nehru clan. The appointment of Ms Gandhi is the choice of party members and not because she wants the past,” he said.
