Former Union Minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram wished his father on his 74th birthday on Monday through an open letter taking many digs at the government. P Chidambaram is currently in Delhi’s Tihar jail in INX Media corruption case.
My letter to my father @PChidambaram_IN on his birthday #HBDPChidambaram pic.twitter.com/LCTV2Br4Ha
— Karti P Chidambaram (@KartiPC) September 16, 2019
The letter opens with birthday day wishes, “You are turning 74 today and no 56!!! can stop you” and an obvious reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s famous “56-inch chest” comment made during the 2014 election campaign. He further wrote, “Turning 74 is nothing compared to turning a 100 days old, “taking pot shot at the 100 days celebrations of the BJP government at the Centre, “celebrating how wonderfully when the GDP -6 years low at 5 per cent.”
He then updated P Chidambaram on all the important happenings from the time he was sent to jail till now. He didn’t even spare the Media, as he said “much needs to be said about the independence of the media now.”
Karti kept abreast his father, the former Home Minister about the Chandrayaan Mission-2 and the “drama” that unfurled, “ ISRo chief Dr (K) Sivan, our fellow Tamilian from Kanyakumari, was visibly upset and the Prime Minister was at hand to offer his arms and comfort him with his iconic head grab”, Kashmir, Nirmala Sitharaman’s “astute insight” on millennials, Piyush Goyal “even snatched the theory of gravity away from Newton and pooh-poohed Einstein,” he sayd in the two-page letter.
Karti even compared the security restrictions in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 to his father’s arrest. “Only you will understand the true plight of the Kashmiris. Because both of you have been locked down unfairly. Though you are better off than the people of Kashmir who are still under a government-imposed communication blackout,” he said.
“I have faith that you too will come out guns blazing against this elaborately staged political drama and for now, we all await that hard-fought glory of truth, ” said Karti, ending the letter on a positive note.
P Chidambaram’s case will be next heard on September 19 in Rouse Avenue court.
The Supreme Court had earlier rejected P Chidambaram’s appeal against the Delhi High Court’s order rejecting his anticipatory bail plea in a case being probed by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in INX Media case.
On August 21, CBI had arrested Chidambaram from his residence in the posh Jor Bagh area of New Delhi.
The CBI had registered an FIR on May 15, 2017, alleging irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance granted to the INX Media group for receiving overseas funds of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during Chidambaram’s tenure as Finance Minister. Thereafter, the Enforcement Directorate lodged a money laundering case in this regard in 2017.
Chidambaram and his son Karti were named by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, who owned INX Media at the time and are currently in jail in connection with the murder of Indrani Mukerjea’s daughter Sheena Bora.