Friend, father & philosopher of black money is Chidambaram
By Ram Jethmalani, The Sunday Guardian,
August 3, 2011
Palaniappan Chidambaram, whom I shall for the sake of brevity call just
Chidambaram, is best seen through black and white. And please don't get me
wrong and accuse me of racism. I refer not to epidermis or mane, but to the
economic colour of money. Some of his greatest contributions to the economy of
India are his brilliant pioneering initiatives for changing the colour of money
from black to white. And this passion has never left him.
Many of us have forgotten the Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS)
1997, which he announced when he was Finance Minister with the United Front
government, granting income-tax defaulters indefinite immunity from prosecution
under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973, Income Tax Act, 1961, Wealth
Tax Act, 1957, and Companies Act, 1956, in exchange of self-valuation and
disclosure of income and assets.
The scheme was brilliantly conceived. While all schemes in the past valued
declared assets at current prices, VDIS 1997 brought in an arbitrary date of 1
April 1987. Gold and silver hoarders, and large property holders got an
exceptional bonanza on this valuation system. Further, proof of purchase was
not insisted upon, which gave complete freedom to the confessors to fudge any
date they wanted to their own financial advantage and further plunder of the
country.
So, even if gold was bought after 1987, it could be shown as having been bought
before 1987, and it was a win-win game for all stakeholders to rake in the
cuts. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India condemned the scheme in his
report as abusive and a fraud on the genuine taxpayers of the country. But the
issue was forgotten, and the illustrious career of Palaniappan Chidambaram rose
to greater heights in the UPA regime.
Those were his innocent days. What a long way he has come since the era when he
was cooking up VDISs, so utterly transparent, that the loopholes and avenues to
give relief to the looters stared you in the face. The world economy was also
then a little simpler than it is today, and his best achievement was getting
caught about his investments in Fairgrowth, which was involved in the
Securities Scam of 1992.
Chidambaram had to resign for this utterly transparent investment in a company
whose scam would have paid rich dividends. Unfortunately, he was not Finance
Minister at the time and did not have the machinery to hush things up, and
could only remotely control the markets, unlike his present capabilities as
former Finance Minister and thereafter.
Being Finance Minister in the UPA government was his finest hour. He could
fiddle around with share markets, capital markets, banks, financial
instruments, such as, securities, participatory notes, tax treaties, not to
speak of spectrum sale, and use his extraordinary innovative powers of black
money magic to plunder our country with complete impunity.
He assiduously cultivated the media with his clipped English accent (that led
him down, now and then), occasional freebies, and sustained shadows of the
Enforcement Directorate that he commanded.
Chidambaram cannot get black money out of his blood. Dr Subramanian Swamy has
clearly stated in his website, "I now have further information from my usually
reliable sources in the Union Government that the tapping of Finance Minister
Mr. Pranab Mukherjee and his close associate in the Ministry, enabled Mr.
Robert Vadra the son-in-law of Ms. Sonia Gandhi and Mr. Karthik, son of Mr. P.
Chidambaram, to use the data thereby collected to manipulate and rig the Mumbai
stock market. Earlier these data were directly provided by the then Finance
Minister Mr. Chidambaram. I demand that the SEBI be asked by PM to initiate
'Insider Trading' investigation and prosecution of Mr. Vadra and Mr. Karthik."
If what is put out by Dr Subramanian Swamy is false why doesn't Chidambaram sue
him?
The dark clouds of the 2G scam and the repeated evidence being given by A. Raja
and other accused of his tacit involvement and other acts of omission and
commission are menacingly closing in on Chidambaram. He is losing his cool, and
more importantly, losing his carefully clipped English accent to its more
indigenous roots more often.
And like his colleague Digvijay Singh, his mind seems to be disintegrating to a
stage where he has started talking gibberish. Take this, for example: in reply
to the BJP demand for his resignation for his involvement in the 2G scam,
Chidambaram claims that the BJP is targeting him since he initiated a probe by
the NIA into Hindu terror. Can any rational person see the connection between
the two?
Take also his comments regarding the recent Mumbai blasts. As Home Minister,
instead of taking stock of the situation, and providing leadership, the only
intelligent thing he could think of saying was, "No intelligence is not
intelligence failure." Even a college debating society expects better logic.
It's something like saying "illness is not a failure of health" or "impotence
is not a failure of potency".
Chidambaram's special financial skills have diversified into electoral politics
also. He has the distinction of having been declared defeated in the last Lok
Sabha election, after which he galvanized his special skills and local
machinery, in particular, a data entry operator, and doctored a marginal
victory on the recount. That is quite a record for fraud. And can one forget
how the Indian Bank was cleaned up and left with only non-performing assets
thanks to him and his Tamil Maanila buddies?
Chidambaram's record as Home Minister has been disastrous. Neither has he made
any impact on internal security, with the worst massacres of his own
paramilitary forces taking place in his time, nor on terrorism, which carries
on in complete complacency because there are neither effective preventive or
punitive systems in place, nor political will and national legislation to
combat terrorism. It is on record and in the public domain that the Home
Ministry gave incorrect names of India's most wanted list of terrorists
allegedly hiding in Pakistan, some of whom were tracked living in India or in
custody. Is this a testament to his fabled efficiency and commitment?
What a laughing stock we must be before the world. It is almost as if India is
determined that it shall not combat terrorism, shall not have enabling
legislation as enacted by the US, such as the Homeland Security Act 2002, and
the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 of UK and similar legislations in European
governments. India is determined not to have an effective national agency on
the lines of the Homeland Security Department of the US.
The ramshackle National Investigation Agency showed itself as a complete
failure during the recent Mumbai attacks. Understandable, because its only
mandate appears to be to investigate "Hindu terror", the last refuge for failed
and hopeless Congressmen like Chidambaram. The CCTNS, JIC, ARC, NTRO (presently
in another scam), and NCTC remain effete, scattered and unmonitorable, even by
the Home Ministry. With such an unequivocal determination by the UPA government
not to address terrorism effectively, I can only grieve for my country.
