Karti Chidambaram in CBI custody till Mar 6; Swami calls it right decision

While businessman Karti Chidambaram was on Thursday remanded in CBI custody for five days by special CBI judge Sunil Rana, it emerged that CBI might also soon question Karti’s father, former finance minister P Chidambaram, in the INX Media bribery case. Meanwhile, BJP leader and Chidambaram critic Subramanian Swamy called the court decision the right move.

“Former finance minister P Chidambaram will be summoned to the agency headquarters here and questioned soon. Although he is not named as accused, his role in the grant of irregular FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) clearance to INX Media is part of the FIR,” a New Indian Express report quoted a senior CBI official supervising the probe as saying.

In the hearing of the INX Media case, the agency accused Karti earlier in the day of being the ‘prime conspirator’ and the ultimate beneficiary in the payoff scandal.
Appearing for Karti Chidambaram in the hearing, lawyer and Congress party member Abhishek Manu Singhvi attacked CBI for relying on the statement of controversial INX media founders Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, the latter in jail as an accused in the murder of her daughter Sheena Bora.

Chidambaram attacks Modi govt over unjust growth in Gujarat

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said on Tuesday his only regret in life was not having served as finance minister in a government which had an "absolute majority", as he targeted the Modi government over its economic policies.

Chidambaram said development had indeed "gone crazy" in Gujarat, and criticised the BJP government in the state for leading what he called a "skewed, unfair, unjust and inequitable growth".

He also came down heavily on the Centre's bullet train project whose foundation was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in Ahmedabad recently.

"The only regret in my life is that I was never a finance minister in a government with absolute majority," he told businessmen at a function organised by the Congress party at Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI).

Referring to the massive majority the BJP-led NDA had in the Lok Sabha, he said anything could have been done with that kind of mandate.

"We could have completely reformed the finance sector, we could have passed the direct taxes code, we could have passed a near perfect GST. With that kind of majority, any laws could have been changed. Anyway, that did not happen," he said.
READ MORE