Sivaganga
Stating that his father and former Union Minister P. Chidambaram had taken a decision in the INX Media case after as many as 12 IAS officers cleared the files, Sivaganga Member of Parliament Karti P Chidambaram has asked as why the bureaucrats were spared when his father was arrested in connection with the case.
Talking to reporters here on Saturday, Mr Karti, who was on constituency tour, said Mr Chidambaram gave his nod for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in INX Media after the IAS officers cleared the files but the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the investigating agency, chose to arrest only his father due to political animosity.
“If the Minister could be held responsible for the wrong decision, the IAS officers who were party to the decision should also be held responsible,” he said and questioned the logic behind sparing them.
Referring to a statement by group of IAS officers that bureaucrats should not be made scapegoats for government’s policy decisions, Mr Karti said if the IAS officers could not be faulted in the INX Media case how could his father, the then Minister who acted on the advise of the officers, could be faulted.
He said the Modi government had arrested and jailed his father in a bid to silence him as he vehemently criticised the government for the demonetisation and for hurriedly implementing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.
He said the sedition case registered against 50 odd celebrities for writing an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on growing mob lynching and filing of cases against opposition leaders showed the government was turning authoritarian.
Asked about cases of impersonation in the NEET examination, he said DMK leader M K Stalin had rightly called for a CBI probe into the issue as the frauds were not confined to Tamil Nadu. It appears to have wider ramifications and demanded a detailed investigation, he said.
On Mr Modi’s speech in the UN, quoting Tamil poet Kaniyan Poongundranar and playing ‘Tamil pride’ card while addressing functions in Chennai recently, Mr Karti said this was just to hoodwink the Tamils as the BJP firmly believed in one language one religion - Hindi and Hindutva policy.
