Chidambaram is the guard of Congress’ box of secrets, once it opens there’s no saving the party

The grand old party has extended unconditional and unwavering support to former finance minister P Chidambaram in the case of money laundering and violation of FDI norms, for which he is currently under arrest. The Congress party as well as the Gandhi family has tweeted extensively on the matter, going as far as to term the situation as a case of political witch hunting.

“A govt that persecutes its citizens for speaking truth to power is only reiterating its own cowardly nature. Chidambaram is an extremely qualified & respected leader, he has served this nation with dedication & humility. We stand by his quest for truth no matter what,” tweeted the official handle of Congress party.

The former Congress President, Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “Modi’s Govt is using the ED, CBI & sections of a spineless media to character assassinate Mr Chidambaram. I strongly condemn this disgraceful misuse of power.”

Those who are aware of the case and Chidambaram’s role in it know that he is tainted; just the degree is to be determined. Even journalists along the likes of Sucheta Dalal, who are well known critics of the Modi government, have spoken against those supporting the accused for his blatantly illegal abuse of political power.

Despite the fact that everyone is aware of Chidambaram’s corruption, the Gandhi family is still keen to support him, and this ponders many. However, Subramanian Swamy, the legendary anti-corruption warrior has revealed a very simple and straight forward piece of information, after which it becomes aptly clear as to why the Gandhi family is hell bent on defending him.

According to Swamy, Chidambaram has been the primary one to launder money for Sonia Gandhi, the matriarch of Gandhi family and the paramount leader of Congress party.  “As far as Chidambaram is concerned, he is perhaps the most corrupt. He has also been the money launderer for Sonia Gandhi,” said Swamy to ANI.

Chidambaram has been a very close associate to Sonia Gandhi, which was clearly evident during the UPA I and UPA II regimes. As per ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’, a book by veteran journalist Sanjay Baru, in 20014, when UPA government came to power for the first time, the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh wanted to keep the finance ministry to himself. However, Sonia Gandhi out rightly refused to this and instead decided to appoint Chidambaram as finance minister.

He held the post of the finance minister from 2004 to 2008 and then again from 2012 to 2014 under both the UPA government regimes. He also held the home ministry portfolio from 2008 to 2012 and during these years, immersed himself in a political witch-hunt of PM Modi, who was the then CM of Gujarat and Amit Shah, the then Home Minister of the state. Chidambaram was awarded important ministries because he was the ‘go to man’ for the Gandhi family and it is a well known fact that the family pays back to people who remain loyal to them.

The decision of political vendetta against Modi and Shah was probably at the behest of Congress matriarch Sonia Gandhi. It is alleged that since Sonia Gandhi and Amit Shah did not see eye to eye with each other, Mrs Gandhi used Chidambaram to go after Shah.

The former finance minister of India is essentially the secret keeper of the Gandhi family. All their illegal activities including, money laundering and political witch-hunting have been performed through him. Now that Chidambaram’s money laundering has come under the limelight, it is only a matter of time before the rest of the deeds unravel. The Gandhi family would rather that the secrets remain behind closed doors and thus, they are keen to do anything in their power to support P Chidambaram.