Prime Minister Narendra Modi after taking over the governance emphasized on two things, ‘Corruption Free India’ and ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’. However, the back-to-back revelation by the Indian Investigative agencies display that Congress and Corruption are synonymous. The Congress that claims to be a party of freedom fighters has to understand that corruption that was blatantly being practiced by them not only has a devastating impact on the availability and accessibility of human rights related goods and services but also undermines the legitimacy of institutions and ultimately the state itself.
And the guard of Congress’ box of secrets is held by none other than former finance minister P Chidambaram.
Chidambaram, Corruption and Money Laundering
In 2019, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had charged Chidambaram with corruption, cheating and forgery among other serious offences in the INX Media Case. The range does not limit to Chidambaram himself rather included his son Karti Chidambaram, NITI Aayog CEO Sindhushree Khullar, then additional secretary in the Department of Economic affairs and member of the now defunct Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), along with Anup K Pujari, former secretary in ministry of MSMEs, Prabodh Saxena, principal secretary, Himachal Pradesh among others.
From Ministers to Secretaries, all were involved in cases of corruption and forgery.
In May 2022, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had booked Karti Chidambaram on charges of money laundering in the Chinese Visa case. The list is non ending. Another case of corruption from the UPA era has surfaced from the same finance ministry which was then headed by P Chidambaram.
CBI raids premises of ex-Finance Secretary
On Thursday, the CBI conducted searches at multiple residences of former finance secretary Arvind Mayaram in connection with corruption and booked him for graft. The raids were conducted in Delhi and Jaipur properties of Mayaram.
The CBI has conducted the raids in connection to the De La rue company, two days after registering an FIR. Mayaram, a 1978 batch retired IAS officer currently serving as the principal economic advisor to Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot has been accused of granting undue favors to the UK based company that deals in bank notes thread.
As per reports, Mayaram gave a three-year extension to the company’s ‘expired contract’ for supply of exclusive color shift security thread for Indian bank notes while he was the finance secretary. FIR registered against him suggests that he did not take mandatory security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Earlier, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had issued a show cause notice to Mayaram seeking explanation on how extension was given to the UK based company.
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Congress comes to Mayaram’s rescue
Chidambaram is the pandora box that Congress would never want to open. Due to the same reason, the entire Congress party has come to the rescue of Mayaram. The Congress party has accused the Modi government of working on the policy of “fear, defamation and intimidation” and connected the raids to the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Jairam Ramesh said that, ‘a former finance secretary who joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra was booked by the CBI. This is the mindset of a coward. But BJY will roll on. sic.’
What is De La Rue, and the controversies
De La Rue, a British Firm, now listed on the London Stock Exchange, designs and prints currency notes and produces other features used in banknotes like security threads and security holograms for many countries in the world.
The company was a major supplier to India, up until 2016. After its name popped up in the Panama Papers, it has not been able to win any major contract in India.
The first time this UK based company embroiled in controversy was in 2010, when it was reported that watermarked currency paper that the company had supplied to India had failed quality parameters. The employees of the company had falsified test certificates submitted to the Reserve Bank of India. Then, Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee ordered an inquiry and consequently suspended supplies from the company.
As per reports, the ban was lifted after Chidambaram came back to the Finance Ministry. The company once again bagged a further 3-year contract up to December 2015. It is said that under the involvement of the same company, Pakistan published and pumped fake/counterfeit notes in India. These counterfeit notes were also used to fund terrorists and insurgency activities and hamper India’s economy.
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