Critics accuse Narendra Modi of “creating a climate of fear” in an attempt to quell
member of India’s somnolent upper house, five years out of government, Palaniappan Chidambaram is a man much in demand. He served as finance minister in 2004-08 and 2012-14, and as home minister during the interim, in governments led by the Congress party. After Congress was crushed at the polls in 2014 by the Bharatiya Janata Party led by Narendra Modi, Mr Chidambaram receded from the spotlight.
Mr Chidambaram was one of the most powerful men in the country under the previous regime. For a time he was spoken of as a potential prime minister. In office he maintained a stately air even while bashing together backroom deals . Since his arrest he has been appearing in court almost daily to plead for bail, arguing that the Central Bureau of Investigation has no cause to keep him in custody.
In Paris this week Mr Modi told an admiring crowd of expatriates that his “new India” is combating corruption like never before. Three days later the tax authority sacked 22 career bureaucrats who faced pending charges. A prime justification for Mr Modi’s decision to revoke the special autonomy enjoyed by the state of Jammu & Kashmir on August 5th was that corruption in its political class had made reform impossible. Hundreds of Kashmiri politicians and activists have since been locked up.
Mr Chakravarty alleges a second malign motive behind the anti-corruption campaign. He maintains that the government is ginning up a “moral crusade” to distract attention from the ailing economy. Growth has fallen to its lowest level since the Congress party’s last year in office. The current finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has just overhauled her first budget in an apparent panic . But Mr Modi won a second five-year term just months ago.
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