Your Columns Are Low-Impact, Merit No Reprisal, Says BJP To P Chidambaram

New Delhi: P Chidambaram, former Finance Minister, said today that the dawn raids at his home in Chennai are reprisal for his criticism of the government through his weekly newspaper column. "The government's aim is to silence my voice and stop me from writing," said Mr Chidambaram, 71. "All I will say is, I shall continue to speak and write."

The government retorted that Mr Chidambaram is deluded about the impact of his writing. "No one cares about those columns, they have not stirred any storm in the country," said union minister Piyush Goyal.

The raids at the home of Mr Chidambaram and his son Karti are linked to suspected criminal misconduct in the approval of investment deals, said the country's premier investigating agency. The CBI alleged that as Finance Minister in the previous Congress-led government, Mr Chidambaram facilitated violations of foreign investment laws in the 2007 sale of stake in media company INX, owned by Indrani and Peter Mukerjea, to offshore entities.

The case names Karti Chidambaram as one of those accused of criminal conspiracy, cheating, seeking to influence a public servant and criminal misconduct. Investigators allege that he was given kickbacks in exchange for his father's help. 

Karti Chidambaram, addressing a media scrum outside his home in Chennai, said there was no evidence to back the claims against him, adding they were politically motivated.

"The government does not interfere in CBI probes... As a common citizen, I can say the probe must have been going on. Agencies must have had the evidence to take the action they are taking," union minister Goyal said at a press conference at the Bharatiya Janata Party's office in Delhi.

Separate CBI teams conducted searches at more than ten places in Tamil Nadu, besides carrying out over a dozen raids in Delhi, Mumbai and Haryana's Gurugram.