CBI raids: It’s vendetta, cries Opposition

Bitter exchanges erupted on the third anniversary of the BJP’s Lok Sabha victory with the Opposition alleging “revenge and vendetta” by the ruling party, which said it was time for “accountability for the corrupt” as central agencies raided premises of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and properties allegedly linked to Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav.

The Congress mounted a strong defence of Chidambaram and maintained the CBI raids on premises owned by him and his son Karti in Chennai were part of the BJP’s larger design to target and hound political opponents. Lalu Prasad, on his part, let out a flurry of invective against the BJP, challenging the ruling party to fight him politically and not indulge in a “witch hunt”.

The home of Chidambaram and his son Karti were among more than a dozen places raided by the CBI on Tuesday morning after an FIR named the latter as an accused in foreign-investment approvals granted in 2008 to a company owned by former media tycoon Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani Mukerjea, who are in jail in connection with the murder of Indrani’s daughter Sheena Bora.

In a statement issued early in the morning, Chidambaram said the government is using central agencies to target him with a view to “silence my voice and to stop me from writing”.

“FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) approval is granted in hundreds of cases. The five secretaries who constitute the FIPB, the officials of the FIPB Secretariat and the competent authority in each case are the public officials. There is no allegation against any of them. There is no allegation against me,” said Chidambaram.

“Every case was processed according to law, and approval was granted or refused in accordance with the recommendations of the FIBP consisting of five secretaries to the Centre.”

“The government, using the CBI and other agencies, is targeting my son and his friends. The government’s aim is to silence my voice and stop me from writing, as it has tried to do in the cases of leaders of Opposition parties, journalists, columnists, NGOs and civil-society organisations. All I will say is, I shall continue to speak and write,” he added.

BJP promptly fielded Power Minister Piyush Goyal from the party platform to reject Chidambaram’s charge that he was being targeted for his columns critical of the government and claimed the issue was why beneficiaries of the FIPB gave “money to the firms owned by his son”.

Chidambaram’s colums have “not exactly set the Yamuna on fire”, Goyal quipped, adding: “He will be accountable for his son’s stroke.”

Rejecting allegations of political vendetta levelled by Lalu Prasad and Chidambaram, Goyal claimed the BJP government never comes in the way of law, and that investigation agencies work independently. “After all, it is not us who demanded reopening of the fodder-scam cases. The Supreme Court gave the verdict,” he said.

Hitting out at the Congress, Goyal said the Opposition party was feeling “helpless” in the face of Modi’s “massive popularity” and instead of introspecting, it was raising wrong issues.

Goyal’s assertions were promptly rebutted with the Congress’s media in-charge Randeep Surjewala saying: “Neither the Congress nor Chidambaram are beaten down by such empty threats.”

Asserting that “revenge and vendetta” had become the “DNA of this BJP government”, Surjewala demanded to know whether the PM will apply the same yardstick of supposed morality to leaders in his own party who have been accused of corruption.

In the same tone, the RJD supremo, who too faced Income Tax Department’s raids at 22 locations in Delhi and adjoining areas, on charges of alleged benami deals worth ₹1,000 crore linked to him and others, said he was “not scared at all” and will continue to fight against the “fascist forces”.

“The BJP does not have the courage to stifle my voice...If it tries to silence one Lalu, crores of Lalu will come forward. I am not scared of empty threats,” he said in a series of tweets.

Prasad rapped the BJP in yet another tweet for “sensing an opportunity to destabilise the Grand Alliance government in Bihar” and asserted the coalition was “intact”.

“Do not be tempted, the alliance is intact. Many more parties with a common ideology are going to join hands with us. I am not scared of the BJP letting loose the government machinery on me,” he wrote on the micro-blogging website.

Our Chennai Bureau adds: Karti Chidambaram termed the CBI raid a political vendetta. “It is political vengeance against my father,” he told newspersons at his father’s residence.

Tamil Nadu Congress Committee President S Thirunavukkarasar said the raid was political revenge as Chidambaram was critical about the government both inside and outside the Parliament. Such threats, however, will not stop Chidambaram from being critical, he said in a statement.

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