Former Union Minister P Chidambaram
The Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Jagdeep Dhankhar, recently appointed P Chidambaram, a senior Congress Rajya Sabha member, to the 8th Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs (SCOHA). Chidambaram, who previously served as a Union minister, will be taking over from P Bhattacharya, a Congress leader whose Rajya Sabha term concluded on August 18.
A statement was issued which said “The Chairman , Rajya Sabha on August 28, 2023, nominated P Chidambaram, member, Rajya Sabha, to the committee on Home Affairs vice shri P Bhattacharya who retired from the membership of Rajya Sabga on the August 18 2023”.
The Parliamentary Committee on Home affairs is currently looking into the three new bills – Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya bill, seeking to replace criminal laws Indian Penal Code (IPC) Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act. The three bills tabled in the monsoon session of the Lok Sabha by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, have been referred to the same to the Standing Committee on Home Affairs on August 18 for examination and asked it to submit its report within three months.
The panel has members from both Houses of Parliament while BJP member Brij Lal is the Chairman of the panel. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhit provides for several changes in the existing provisions, including defmation , attempt to commit suicides and expand the scope of offence against women pertaining to sexual intercourse by employing ‘ deceitful means”. It also lists out new offences such as acts of session, armed rebellion, subversive activities etc. For the first time, the word terrorism has been defined under the BNS which was not there under the IPC.
What is intriguing and indigestible is the choice of PC for the committee. Senior Journalist Ganesan stated, “ It is my firm view that Chidambaram is a wrong choice. Chidambaram, was missing for a week in 2019 when the Delhi High Court ended his interim bail in the INX FDI case, dramatically appeared at the Congress headquarters on claiming he had been planning his legal defence and is ready to face the law. When the CBI team went to arrest him at his residence, entry was denied and PC tried to escape from the backdoor. After vaulting over the closed gates at the former minister’s residence, they arrested him. He was the first Union Minister and senior most Congress leader to have been taken into custody so far by a Central agency. As senior lawyer, evading arrest by hiding and trying tricks to escape from arrest were not expected from a veteran person like him.Indrani Mukerjea alleged that she was forced to share bed with him in return for his help in her cases. He is on bail now and his case, reasons better known, continuous to missing from the cause list. When it will be taken up is a bet against bet”.
He also said ” In July 1992? Chidambaram had put in his papers as Minister of State for Commerce after it became known that he and Nalini had invested in shares of the scam-tainted Fairgrowth Financial Services Ltd that had been promoted by maverick ex-banker Bilgi Ratnakar who had been involved in the share market scandal involving broker Harshad Mehta. His wife Nalini Chidambaram, also a lawyer, returned the Rs 100,000 that she had received as fees from the Income Tax Department following objections when he was the Finance Minister. In last February , the ED provisionally attached assets worth Rs 6 crore belonging to Nalini Chidambaram during the ongoing investigation into the Saradha Group of Companies, which was in the chit fund business. His son is also facing charges in money laundering cases. While being so PC’s inclusion is totally unacceptable. Only person with impeccable image should be inducted. Experience in bar and politics alone can not be criteria. He was first to coin the ‘ Saffron terror” after the Mumbai serial blasts in 2008. “.
Senior journalist working with The Pioneer, J Gopikrishnan wrote a series of articles titled “ Chidambara Ragasiyam” ( secrets of Chidambaram). He accused him of amassing wealth in “six continents” . He has written a complaint earlier to the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi wherein he has prayed that the Senior Advocate designation granted to Congress leader P Chidambaram and his wife Nalini Chidambaram be suspended in view of the charge sheets filed against them for corruption, money laundering.
Last year in July, leader of the House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal accused P Chidambaram of insulting Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar in the garb of being an “intellectual” and asked him to apologise in the house. PGuru promoter Sree Iyer also wrote a novel in which PC is the central character’ – entitled” who painted my money white”. He is accused of selling currency note printing machinery to Pakistan with technology that was one of the reasons, it was told, for the 2016 demonetisation decision.
The allegations against the Congress party range all the way back to 2011, when the then Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy had claimed that Home Minister P Chidambaram was planting devices in Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s room at the behest of Sonia Gandhi. He had also alleged that the tapping was being done for the Hasan Ali case which could result in the revealtion of several other big names. Senior BJP leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) late Sushma Swaraj had called the episode ‘India’s watergate’ and had demanded a thorough probe into the matter.
Senior journalist Kumar Chellappan in his face book wrote “”What should I say? Shocking?? Blood chilling?? A person who was arrested by the investigation agencies for financial impropriety and corruption and was in Tihar Jail who is out on bail will decide about the fate of the proposed amendment in IPC, Cr PC and Evidence Act!!!!My foot…
A rethinking on his nominations, say public, is needed to keep the sanctity attached to the panel and in the interest of nation. Should we need a person of such calibre, history for such an important committee to brainstorm to make a report?
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