NEW DELHI, May 4: It was all within the Congress causing an immense embarrassment to the party till another party leader tried to douse the fire separating the public and professional lives of the leaders.
The senior Congress leader and the former union finance minister P Chidambaram was heckled by his own party workers and was shown black flags on Wednesday as he reached the Calcutta High Court to fight a case against a party colleague – Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the state Congress president, in a case against the Trinamool Congress-led state government.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had filed public interest litigation (PIL) against the Bengal government alleging corruption in the sale of the state government’s stake in Mother Diary to a private company, Keventers, in 2015. P Chidambaram was representing Keventers in this case.
Alleging that Chidambaram was playing with the sentiment of the Congress party, the lawyers supporting Chowdhury claimed that it was not appropriate for him to represent the company when the state party president was fighting the case against the government the TMC government’s sale of shares to the private company.
One of the participants in the protest, lawyer Kaustav Bagchi, said the former Union Finance Minister was appearing for an entity whose purchase of shares was being objected to by the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president.
Chowdhury, when contacted said the protest was a “natural” reaction from some Congress supporters. “I have heard that some Congress supporters present at Calcutta High Court protested. I believe this was their natural reaction,” Chowdhury said from Berhampore.
On party colleague Chidambaram fighting the case, Chowdhury stated that there might have been some misunderstanding and one’s professional life should be kept away from one’s political life. “I didn’t know that Chidambaram was in Kolkata. I personally feel that our supporters became emotional and this happened. Politics and professional life are different. Chidambaram is a very, very senior leader of Congress and I have a very good friendship with him,” Chowdhury said after the incident. Chowdhury said that in a professional world, one has the right to choose his or her options. “It’s a professional world. It depends on the person… nobody can dictate to him or her,” he added.
When contacted an amused Chidambaram said, “It’s a free country. I have no comments. Why should I comment on this?”
Alleging that the West Bengal government had sold shares of Mother Dairy, which was then held jointly by the state and Keventer Agro, to the private partner at a “throwaway price”, Chowdhury had filed a PIL before the high court seeking an investigation into the matter.
The interest of the state was adversely affected by the sale, Chowdhury’s lawyer Bikash Bhattacharya claimed and added that Keventer had sold a part of the shares to a Singapore-based company at a much higher price soon after.
The state has claimed before the court that it has fairly sold the shares to Keventer and there was no irregularity in it.
The argument was supported by the company which was represented by Chidambaram. The matter was fixed for further hearing on Thursday by a division bench presided over by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava, before which the matter is being argued.
(Manas Dasgupta)
