JOIN USFormer Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said the CBI raids against him and his son were attempts by the Modi government to silence him from writing against its policies.
The raids in connection with alleged payoffs in the clearances granted to a news channel during Chidambaram's tenure as Finance Minister came on a day the Congress launched a strong critique of the NDA government's policies coinciding with its third anniversary.
“The government, using the CBI and other agencies, is targeting my son and his friends,” Chidambaram, a senior Congress leader said in a statement here.
“The government's aim is to silence my voice and stop me from writing, as it has tried to do in the cases of leaders of Opposition parties, journalists, columnists, NGOs and civil society organizations,” he said.
“All I will say is, I shall continue to speak and write,” Chidambaram said there were no allegations against him.
On investigations into the clearances granted by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to INX Media, he said such approvals were granted in hundreds of cases.
“The five Secretaries who constitute the FIPB, the officials of the FIPB Secretariat and the competent authority in each case are the public officials. There is no allegation against any of them. There is no allegation against me,” he said.
“Every case was processed according to law and approval was granted or refused in accordance with the recommendations of the FIBP consisting of five Secretaries to the Government of India,” Chidambaram said.