Under attack over allegations related to the Aircel-Maxis deal and charges that he has amassed “undisclosed global assets”, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s son Karti said all his assets and liabilities were accessible on the Election Commission website.
In an interview to The Hindu , he wondered why the Income-Tax Department was accepting his annual returns and giving him a refund for excess tax paid if he indeed had “undisclosed assets”.
“All transactions of my companies are fully compliant with statutory and regulatory requirements, duly reflected in the books of accounts and suffered tax wherever applicable,” Mr. Karti said. “This undisclosed assets and global empire allegation is laughable. I contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, my father is an MP. Our entire family’s assets and liabilities are a matter of public record and accessible online via the EC website.”
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He claimed that the summons sent to him by the Enforcement Directorate were a political tool to harass his family.
“These summons do not refer to any predicate offence or to any proceeds of crime. They are just a fishing and roving inquiry with the sole intention to harass political opponents,” he claimed.
Mr. Karti said that one key failure of the Congress in 2014 was its inability to communicate well and failure to dispel the negative perception about it.
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High command
He said that the high command structure would not do in future and the party should promote regional leaders. “This concentrated high command structure doesn’t suit well in an arena where there are multiple regional and sub-regional parties. People expect leadership at their doorstep and not on a mountain,” he said.
Asserting that politics was now about personalities, Mr. Karti said the Congress should identify future Prime Ministerial and Chief Ministerial candidates.