Searching Son For Dad's Dirt

A recent income-tax search hasn't shaken karti or PC.Rivals claim the duo is in real trouble this time.

- G.C. Shekhar

NONCHALANCE has remained the hallmark of Karti Chidambaram, the only son of former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram. The 45­ year­ old businessman ­politician could always afford to be so, having grown up amidst wealth, political power and even readily available legal advice (his parents are top lawyers). “What do you think they can do? nothing will come of that! all this is just empty posturing.” These are some of Karti’s favourite responses when confronted with a tricky situation.

Like, when the CBI knocked on the doors of his family’s Chennai residence on May 16. He has been booked for corruption and conspiracy to help INX Media get an FIPB clearance circumventing foreign equity limits in a media company. (Indrani and Peter Mukherjea, who floated INX in 2007, later became accused in the case on the 2012 murder of Sheena Bora murder.) In its FIR, the CBI alleges that Chidambaram as finance minister allowed the Mukherjeas to get foreign investment of Rs 305 crore although the Foreign Investment Promotion Board had sanctioned only Rs 4 crore. The probe agency further claims that Karti, in return, got kickbacks of over Rs 3 crore through the companies linked directly and indirectly to him.

Karti, with characteristic insouciance, brushes away the raids at his home in downtown Nungambakkam as act two of the Narendra Modi government’s drama to fix him and, through him, his father for financial impropriety in his business dealings. Every time a question is raised (invariably by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy) or an investigation is opened or raid conducted, Karti and Chidambaram have defended themselves with the standard format: all the business dealings have the RBI’s approval and are compliant with the laws.