It was in the year 2012 when anti graft crusader and self professed champion of anti corruption movement Arvind Kejriwal spilled the beans and accused Shri P. Chidambaram, then Union Minister for corruption charges. Since then, in one way or another Arvind Kejriwal has been attacking P. Chidambaram, Veteran lawyer, senior congress leader and former Union Minister until we got to know very recently that P. Chidambaram is going to represent the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal government in his fight against the Lieutenant Governor in the Supreme Court over the differences in administrative authority. It came as a rather rude shock and gave his detractors another opportunity to take a dig at him. But the most shocking part is, it has surprised even his hardcore followers, who considered Kejriwal’s incessant U-turns and flip-flops as a part of his political brilliance.
Way back in January, 2014 when Arvind Kejriwal listed the most corrupt politicians, P. Chidambaram was among the top corrupt politicians, This is what Arvind Kejriwal had said back then:
“We have not come here to play dirty politics, we have come to weed out corruption. Our aim is that not a single corrupt person should remain in parliament,”
He further said, “We need to change all this. We have not come to contest elections. People of the country will fight this election.”
“We are providing an option before the people of the country, and the country has to work to make sure that not one corrupt person is elected to parliament,” he added..’’
AAP Government will be now represented in the Supreme Court by the very same person who once occupied the prime position in his India’s Most Corrupt list. Mr Chidambaram is expected to appear in court on Tuesday i.e. on 07.12.2017, the next date of hearing of the Kejriwal vs Delhi LG Case.
On the other hand P. Chidambaram has serious corruption allegations leveled against him. In September, 2017 Enforcement Directorate attached assets, bank accounts and fixed deposits worth Rs. 90 lakh of his son Karti, in connection with the Aircel-Maxis Case. The Aircel-Maxis deal refers to a series of allegations of kickbacks in the telecom sector, which was part of the wider 2G scam that engulfed the UPA regime. Not just the Aircel Marxis Scam, BJP has also accused Chidamabarm of “changing” an affidavit filed in connection with the encounter killing of Ishrat Jahan. BJP has been alleging that P. Chidambaram had brushed aside the intelligence inputs that suggested that Ishrat had terrorist links. It is also a realitythat former UPA regime was mired in several severe corruption charges during its tenure and Mr. Chidambaram was key Minister (Home and Finance) in UPA cabinet.
AAP was formed on the premise of weeding out corruption. It began by criticizing every and all political parties for corruption. Congress was a special target of Kejriwal and company, as he tore into them in the most vocal and disparaging manner but soon after winning elections, AAP and Kejriwal started inclining towards Congress. AAP and Congress soon got into an alliance for their first alliance government in Delhi. After the humiliating loss of Arvind Kejriwal at the hands of PM Modi in 2014 election, AAP totally deviated from the point it had started off and became a part of United Opposition. But to be fair to him, Kejriwal did maintain a safe distance from Congress and its leaders, though accusation about him being soft on Congress were routinely made.
In their counter, AAP said that Chidambaram was the lawyer for the government and not the party”. AAP’s chief spokesperson in Delhi, Saurabh Bhardwaj said, “If Chidambaram had been hired, it was for his “experience as a lawyer and has nothing to do with politics”.
Though Congress top leaders have maintained silence over it but Delhi congress has slammed AAP for its hypocrisy. Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken mocked AAP for selecting Chidambaram, who was termed corrupt by Arvind Kejriwal in 2014. “Congratulations, Chidambaram! You have been exonerated by your one time critic,” Maken said on Twitter, sharing screenshots of Kejriwal’s old tweets on the former finance minister. “Would AAP now apologise?”. “Kejriwal has finally fallen at the feet of Chidambaram”, Maken said. Not only Maken, but former Delhi MP and Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit also questioned AAP’s ethics as the party hired Chidambaram when it got into trouble. “Kejriwal abuses Chidambaram as corrupt to suit his naked ambitions, then uses him as a ‘great lawyer’. Ethics anybody?” Also, BJP accused and termed AAP as ‘ B’ party of congress.
Congratulations! .@PChidambaram_IN -You have been exonerated by your one time critic @ArvindKejriwal and AAP!
Would AAP now apologise!? pic.twitter.com/cPU3MThrvj
— Ajay Maken (@ajaymaken) November 3, 2017
Aam Aadmi Party is engaged in turf war with centre over who rules Delhi. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra will be hearing petitions by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s government against last year’s High Court verdict that the LG is the administrative head of the national capital and observed that prima facie Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor or LG has primacy in the national capital under the Constitution, but also said that the top official cannot “sit over files” beyond a reasonable period and must refer to the President matters, over which he has a difference of opinion with the Delhi government.”
It would be very interesting to see P. Chidambaram representing Kejriwal ’s Government in the Supreme Court. Possibly for the first time the ‘Most Corrupt’ will represent the Self-Proclaimed ‘Incorruptible’, and funnily it was the latter who branded the former as the Most Corrupt.
As in politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies but only permanent interests.