Chidambaram's information lapse

Chidambaram'sinformation lapse
By Geetha

?Caesar'swife should be above suspicion? is what Dr. Manmohan Singh, the then Finance Minister, had said about P.V. Narasimha Rao when his mentor and the then Prime Minister came under the shadow of the Hawala scandal and the Congressmen, in their true colours, deserted him one after the other.

That was about a decade ago. We need to ask Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, what he thinks about his Finance Minister'swife!

Should ?Chidambaram'swife not be above suspicion?? The correct way to para-phrase the question would be ?should Chidambaram be above suspicion of helping his wife?? Merely by pretending to be ignorant, the Finance Minister does not come out clean. His explanation about the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) appointing Nalini Chidambaram as the counsel for the Income Tax Department against a Chennai Mill without the knowledge of Finance Minister does not sound credible. The Finance Minister said something else which was even more incredible – that not only CBDT acted on its own, he had no idea about his wife taking up the case which he himself was handling before becoming a minister.

The problems for the Finance Minister were confounded by the lack of support by his own party colleagues, including quite a few of the Cabinet ministers whom he has rubbed the wrong way. Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar could safely be counted among those who would have enjoyed at the expense of Mr Chidambaram.

Going by his shallow argument, it was only after N Jothi made a ruckus in Parliament and the BJP joined the AIADMK Member that the Finance Minister discovered that the lawyer who lost the case for CBDT was none other than Nalini Chidambaram.

And it was only after the BJP and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha made a demand for his ouster from the Cabinet that Chidambaram realized that the Income Tax Department should appeal against the Madras High Court Judgement which was delivered as early as April 2005 in the case of Commissioner of Income Tax versus Janakiram Mills Ltd. The Court had disposed of the appeal made by the I.T. Department along with a batch of cases dealing with the same issue. As many as 43 textile mills were involved in the case before the Madras High Court.

It was in the assessment year 1986-87 during which Janakiram Mills Ltd. Tenkasi Road, Rajapalayam, replaced its ?carding system? with ?high production cards? by spending Rs. 31.2 lakhs . This firm claimed the amount as ?current repairs? (under section 31 of the Income Tax Act). But the I.T. Office said this was a capital expenditure. The Assessment officer lost his appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals) and it went to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT). Even ITAT decision went in favour of the textile firm. It was then that the case was taken to the High Court where Nalini Chidambaram argued and argued it well, but could not retrieve the ground for CBDT.

While there was an uproar in Parliament over the question of propriety of the Finance Minister, so called women activists argued why should Smt. Chidambaram not be able to practise as an independent lawyer.

It'snobody'scase to question Smt. Chidambaram'scredentials. The credentials in question are that of her client who happens to be the Finance Minister of the country !

The CBDT explanation was equally unconvincing. It cannot get away by only admitting its ??lapse?? for not informing the Finance Minister that his wife was hired as the IT lawyer in an important case. Even if the taxpayers, whose loss it was because of this ??lapse??, believe so, what punishment should be meted out to the board and to whom in the board. Has Chidambaram identified the officials responsible for the ?? lapse??. If nothing else, at least a scape-goat should have been found by now.

The problems for the Finance Minister were confounded by the lack of support by his own party colleagues, including quite a few of the Cabinet ministers whom he has rubbed the wrong way. Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar could safely be counted among those who would have enjoyed at the expense of Shri Chidambaram.

The Prime Minister has maintained his silence so far. It was the public outcry after the Nanawati Commission report that saw the back of one of his ministers. But is he convinced about the Chidambaram couple being above suspicion!