Karti Chidambaram, Congress Lok Sabha member and son of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, on Thursday said the action against his father was to silence him and denied ever meeting INX Media founders Peter Mukherjea and Indrani Mukherjea.
“This is political vendetta to silence my father. My father has been the most vocal critic of this government,” Mr. Karti Chidambaram told reporters at the Delhi airport after arriving to meet his parents.
On Wednesday, in a dramatic turn of events, the CBI arrested Mr. Chidambaram on the charge of being involved in a bribery case in which he and Mr. Karti Chidambaram were alleged to have received kickbacks from the INX Media founders.
Mr. Karti Chidambaram also categorically denied meeting the Mukherjeas or influencing the decisions of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).
“I have never met these two people or have anything to do with the FIPB,” he said.
The former Union Minister’s son said the FIPB clearances were supposed to have been given in 2008 but a case was registered only in 2017.
“ I have been raided four times and nobody in India has been raided as many times as I have been. And they still don’t have a case,”said Mr. Karti Chidambaram and described the act of CBI officials scaling the compound walls as “theatrics for television channels.”
The Congress Lok Sabha member from Sivaganga thanked his party leadership, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, for extending support to his father.
“This is not merely targeting of my father but the targeting of Congress party,” he said.
Asked whether he would raise this issue at an Opposition protest meet in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar area, he said he would if other allies did so. However, he clarified that the Opposition protest meet was against the dilution of Article 370 granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
“DMK chief M.K. Stalin has already condemned it yesterday,” he said.
Published - August 22, 2019 11:21 am IST
