Clash of the Titans: Will this be Chidambaram's day out?

In 1977, soon after the Janata Party had come to power, P Chidambaram, then a young and upstart lawyer from Tamil Nadu who held radical left views on the economy, happened to meet his former Harvard tutor Subramanian Swamy, another keen legal mind who too hails from Tamil Nadu. The young lawyer, all full of beans and a clipped accent, bounded up to the master, who had by then become quite a political celebrity, and introduced himself as one of the other’s students. But, curiously, the Harvard don had not the faintest recollection of the uppity student. Years later, Swamy recounted that encounter thus: “He (Chidambaram) said he was my student at Harvard. I don’t recall that. I guess he must have been a poor student. If he had been a good student, I would have remembered him.” [caption id=“attachment_158965” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“A day or reckoning for P Chidambaram. Vijay Verma/PTI”] [/caption] In the years since then, Chidambaram has given Swamy sufficient reasons to refresh his memory. The political trajectories that the two took have put them frequently on a collision course, with each looking to outmanoeuvre and politically vanquish the other. Oftentimes the Clash of the Titans escalated beyond personal animosity – and had a bearing on the destiny of elected governments and, occasionally, even the country. Like weary boxers, both have been slugging it out, with neither being able to deliver the knockout punch. But Swamy perhaps reckons that the final crushing blow will be delivered in court today. At 10.30 am today, the Supreme Court will deliver its verdict on three key aspects of the 2G scam case, including one on a petition by Swamy and others seeking a CBI inquiry into Chidambaram’s alleged role in fixing spectrum price when he was finance minister in 2008. If the court rules that Chidambaram’s role should be investigated, it would be politically untenable for him to remain as Minister. This could be his ‘day out’ – of office. Additionally, the court will decide if a Special Investigation Team (SIT) should continue to oversee the CBI investigation into the scam, and whether the tainted 2G licences should be cancelled. The case against Chidambaram, as made out by Swamy, relates to the claim that the decision on pricing of 2G spectrum was taken jointely by Chidambaram and Telecom Minister A Raja. Swamy has argued that Chidambaram should be made an accused in the case for his alleged role in allowing two telecom firms – Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless - to earn windfall profits by loading their shares to foreign firms. Swamy’s case is that Chidambaram is just as culpable as Raja, who completes one year in Tihar jail today, and that the two were party to the decision not to revise the entry fees for telecom players that was set in 2001. The government has argued that Chidambaram had no role in fixing the price or in granting the licences, and that Chidambaram had always argued in favour of auction to determine entry fees, and grant licences and spectrum. It has blamed Raja for the scam But the Supreme Court has also taken on record a finance ministry note to the Prime Minister’s Office issued on 25 March 2011 and signed by Pranab Mukherjee, which appeared to suggest that the scam could have been averted if Chidambaram had favoured an auction of the spectrum, rather than a first-come-first-served allocation. After a cold war broke out between Chidambaram and Mukherjee, the latter clarified that the note was a “background paper”, and that it contained “certain inferences and interpretations which do not reflect my views.” In any case, all those legal minutiae will be finally up for verdict today. It promises to be a day of high courtroom drama. But beneath all that, the personal battle between Swamy and Chidambaram – between master and pupil – will also be settled today.