Probe agencies suppressing that Chidambaram was the 12th signatory in INX file: Jairam Ramesh

Defending former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the INX Media case, senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday said that the cases against the former had little merit and was purely political vendetta.

Ramesh said the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) was set up in 1991. The FIPB has six secretaries in it with the Finance Secretary as the chairman. He pointed out that the INX Media proposal had been recommended by FIPB and that, in the finance ministry, it was examined by the Under Secretary, then the Deputy Secretary, and after him the Joint Secretary and Additional Secretary, and again it was looked into by the Finance Secretary.

“INX Media case was part of a set of about 24 proposals, which were put up to the Finance Minister for approval and in that file there were 11 signatures, 6 members of the FIPB (the Foreign Investment Promotion Board), that was setup in 1991 and after the FIPB examine proposal, it goes to the Finance Ministry for further approval by the under Secretary, the Deputy Secretary, Director, the Joint Secretary, the Additional Secretary and then the Finance Secretary. The Finance Secretary looks at the proposal twice, once as chairman of the FIPB and once as the Finance Secretary. So this INX Media proposal has 11 signatures of officers, 11 not 1 and the 12th signature dated 28/05/2007 is that of the then Finance Minister Shri P. Chidambaram,” Ramesh said.

"This means that before Chidambaram signed the file, 11 bureaucrats had signed the file, but only Chidambaram is being targeted," he said. He added that the INX Media proposal was just one of the 24 more proposals which were recommended by FIPB to the then Union Finance Minister. After all the recommendations were done, Chidambaram signed the file on May 28, 2007.

He also asked that if none of the 11 bureaucrats had done nothing wrong, how did the 12th signatory become the kingpin? “It had 11 signatures without any comments and each of these officers or some of these officers, we understand have been spoken to by the Investigating agencies. There has been no case made out against these officers. These officers have not been found to have done something illegal or something blatantly wrong. Now, if these officers have been exonerated, the question arises, how is the man who has signed the 12th signature suddenly becomes the kingpin,” he said.

Ramesh alleged that the cases against Chidambaram were taking place to defame the former minister and in turn defame the Congress party. He said, “The kingpins are in the Government who are waging this campaign of character assassination and vilification to defame, not only an individual, not only a former minister, but also defame the Congress Party in the process.”

Saying it was routine for ministers to sign files that came to them, Ramesh said, “As a minister for eight years, I have signed hundreds of files. Sometimes, I have disagreed with the files that had come to me, sometimes I have agreed with the files that had come to me. Where I have disagreed, I have given reasons for the disagreement and where I have agreed I have simply signed. If the penalty is custody in Tihar Jail, no minister, I can assure you will sign any file. This, I think is a basic fact, which the investigating agencies have chosen not to highlight and I think it is abundantly clear that this is a conspiracy on the part of the government. Not a conspiracy on the part of the person who is accused, it is a case of nothing less than political vendetta.”

"It is abundantly clear that this is a conspiracy on the part of the government and not on the part of the person who is accused. It is a case of nothing less than a political vendetta," Ramesh told reporters at the AICC headquarters.

"The kingpins are in the government who are waging this campaign of character assassination and vilification to defame, not only an individual or a former minister, but the Congress party in the process," he said.

He said one fact that has not been highlighted by the probe agencies investigating the case is that 24 proposals were put up before the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) and a total of 11 officials, including top secretaries in the Government of India, signed on the file before Chidambaram.

But, he said, the probe agencies have chosen to suppress that the INX Media case was part of a set of about 24 proposals, which were put up to the finance minister for approval.

In that file, there were 11 signatures, including those of six members of the FIPB, setup in 1991. After the Board examined the proposal, it went to the Finance Ministry for further approval by the under secretary, deputy secretary, director, joint secretary, additional secretary and finance secretary.

He said the finance secretary looked at the proposal twice, once as the chairman of the FIPB and the second time as the finance secretary.

"This INX Media proposal has 11 signatures of officers, 11, not 1 and the 12th signature dated May 28, 2007 is that of the then finance minister P Chidambaram." The INX Media case has gone through 11-layered scrutiny and each one of them has been spoken to by the investigative agencies, he said.

"The officers have not been found to have done something illegal or something blatantly wrong. Now, if they have been exonerated, the question arises, how is that the 12th man who signed suddenly becomes the kingpin," Ramesh asked.

Chidambaram had on September 9 tweeted that no officer did anything wrong and no arrest should be made.

"Is this a penalty for signing on a file based on what has come to the minister? If the penalty is custody in Tihar Jail then no minister, I can assure you, will sign any file. This, I think is a basic fact, which the investigating agencies have chosen not to highlight," he noted.