New Delhi: Former Prime Minister and senior Congress leader Manmohan Singh on Monday expressed concern over the continued detention in custody of his party colleague P Chidambaram in a corruption case and hoped that the courts will render justice.
Chidambaram, a former Union finance minister, was arrested by the CBI for alleged corruption in the grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance in the INX Media case. He was later remanded in judicial custody and sent to Tihar jail.
Singh, who along with Congress president Sonia Gandhi earlier in the day met Chidambaram in Tihar Jail, said no decision in the country was taken by a single person and wondered how a minister simply approving recommendations can be accused of committing a crime.
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He feared that if the minister is liable for approving a recommendation, the whole system of government will collapse.
“We are concerned with continued detention in custody of our colleague P Chidambaram,” Singh said in a statement after meeting Chidambaram.
He said in the country’s system of government, no decision can be taken by any single person and all decisions are collective decisions recorded in files.
He said a dozen officers, including six secretaries to the government, examined and recommended the proposal and Chidambaram as minister approved the unanimous recommendation.
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“If the officers are not at fault, it is beyond our comprehension how the minister who simply approved the recommendation can be accused of committing an offence. If the minister is liable for approving a recommendation, the whole system of government will collapse,” he said.
“We are confident, and we sincerely hope, that the courts will render justice in this case,” the former prime minister said in the statement.
Mr Chidambaram is an intelligent person.
He did not exactly cheat nor did the secretaries.
The modus operandi followed was this: INX Media was accorded sanction for subscription to its Share capital for X amount. This recommendation of the secretaries was approved by Sri Chidambarm. Nothing wrong up to this stage.
Sri Chidambaram later advised INX Media that the sanctioned ‘X’ amount could be interpreted as bare Face value of shares and INX was free to invite subscription to its shares at a premium. Thus, the ‘X’ amount became 20’X’; the no of shares remaining the same. Apparently, the sanction terms were not violated.
Sri Chidambaram extracted a price for this piece of advice [called consultancy charges] and the said charges were to be paid to his son’s account.
Sri Chidambaram thus misused his position and is guilty of moral turpitude.
With this single X we will make XXX. This is not only the case there are than2000 voilations
No decision in the country was taken by a single person , if in spite of this there was corruption, obviously he admits that all were complicit. He rented out his clean image to the party and from top to bottom allowed everyone to ride on it. What did he get for it? The TAM ZAM of being a PM, flying in Air India One with a lot of chamchas and finally a disgraced departure.
One chor supports another chor.
Citizen-voters have very poor knowledge of the way in which is the Enforcement Directorate (ED) or CBI or similar Investigation Authorities function. In the past not one Congress or UPA government made any effort to ensure that these agencies/organizations function with reasonable level of autonomy. Today we can have doubts as to whether criminal cases filed for money laundering activities are politicised. Hence, former PM Manmohan Singh has every right to raise questions about arrest of P Chidambaram. However, my view is that he has to accept that his government did nothing to ensure that ED, CBI etc. could function without fear of ministerial or government intervention. Citizen-voters have now to demand that ED, CBI etc become functionally and truly independent. Would former PM Manmohan Singh support this demand?
People are investigated only if there is a quid pro quo in sanction. Bullying officials to put up favourable recommendations is very common. Let not the ex PM justify his ministers who misused their lest the suspicion of complicity fall on him also.
Dr. Manmohan Singh allowed 2G Scam, Coal Scam, Commonwealth Games Scam and many more to happen. His opinionsAre worthless if these are about another scam master in his government.