2G, CWG: Why Chidambaram is now in the line of fire

Shots fired at the Prime Minister are now ricocheting off on P Chidambaram, Finance Minister at the time of the 2G and Commonwealth Games scams, and currently Union Home Minister. With the PM’s ratings now looking a bit up after his recent interaction with the media, his detractors, both within the party and outside, are looking for new targets, and Chidambaram — who is not known for his humility — appears to be coming in the line of fire. The latest politician to target Chidambaram directly is party colleague Mani Shankar Aiyar, former Sports Minister in UPA-1, who has said that Chidambaram did not act when he brought instances of egregious spending in the Commonwealth Games (CWG) to his notice. CNN-IBN has reported that it has copies of letters written by Aiyar, the late Sunil Dutt and MS Gill to the Prime Minister questioning the way money was being spent like water on the Commonwealth Games. [caption id=“attachment_36149” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Mani Shankar Aiyar, former Sports Minister in UPA-1, has said that Chidambaram did not act when he brought instances of egregious spending in the Commonwealth Games to his notice. PTI”] [/caption] But with the PM himself dismissing Aiyar’s complaints as being largely ideologically driven, and with the party high command decreeing that the PM cannot be the target of attacks, the missiles have now been re-directed to Chidambaram. Aiyar told the TV channel: “My letters of complaint were neither acknowledged nor acted upon by Mr Chidambaram who was the Finance Minister till 2007." Chidambaram is in many people’s dislike list for one major reason: his alleged arrogance. He is widely seen by all people who have interacted with him — businessmen, bureaucrats, and party colleagues — as arrogant and peremptory with people who disagree with him. As Finance Minister, he suddenly walked out of a TV interview when he was asked tough questions about his budget arithmetic. All these sins may now be coming home to roost. A few weeks ago, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, fresh from her own sweeping electoral victory,  demanded Chidambaram’s resignation because, according to her, he had not won his election fairly in 2009. Speaking to newspersons around mid-June in Delhi, Jayalalithaa launched a scathing attack on Chidambaram saying he wouldn’t have won from Sivaganga in 2009 if a data entry operator in the constituency had not reversed the votes going for the AIADMK candidate in favour of Chidambaram. A stung Chidambaram fumed about it all being contempt of court, but those watching the election results of May 2009 were surprised that Chidambaram, who was trailing all the while, was suddenly declared winner in the end by a slim margin. The courts will decide his fate in due course, but Chidambaram’s role in the spectrum auction that got A Raja into jail is also being questioned by many, including the controversial Public Accounts Committee which went into the report of the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) on the same subject. The PAC wondered why Chidambaram, just a week after Raja issued licences in a questionable manner, changed his stand and wanted the matter closed. The committee, was “shocked and dismayed to note that the Finance Minister, in his note dated 15 January, 2008, acknowledged that spectrum is a scarce resource and the price of spectrum should be based on its scarcity value and efficiency of usage, but made a unique and condescending suggestion that the matter be treated as closed," it said. The PAC report is now in no man’s land, after Congress, BSP and SP members voted against its adoption last April, but the attack against Chidambaram continues. Two days ago, former NDA Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into Chidambaram’s role in the 2G scam. “As Finance Minister, Chidambaram has been as deeply involved in 2G spectrum as A Raja and Kanimozhi (DMK chief Karunanidhi’s daughter, now in Tihar jail), and unless his role is also probed by the CBI in the manner it has been done in the case of others, the enquiry would not reach its logical end," Sinha said. Chidambaram, it seems has few friends left either in the party or outside. But one former detractor, Digvijaya Singh, who was widely quoted as criticising Chidambaram for his “intellectual arrogance”, has now gone soft on him. In a recent TV interview, Singh said: “…As far as my personal remarks on Chidambaram (are concerned), I have already conveyed my regret to him. I think he has changed quite a lot now," Singh told NDTV. In contrast, last year Singh had blasted Chidambaram’s anti-Maoist strategy as “sectarian”. In an article written for a newspaper, he also wrote: “I have been a victim of his (Chidambaram’s) intellectual arrogance many times.” As for Aiyar, who has launched his own slingshots in Chidambaram’s direction, he was never an admirer. As far back as 1996, Aiyar-bashed Chidambaram as the “most incompetent Minister of State for Internal Security (in 1986-89, as part of Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet) and most negligent as minister in charge of the investigation into Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination from May 24, 1995, till his defection to the TMC on April Fool’s Day, 1996.” Clearly, Chidambaram has a lot to worry about in the near future.