Govt seeks end to FM wife issue

The government sought closure on the controversy surrounding the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) case in which Nalini Chidambaram, wife of finance minister P Chidambaram had represented the department of finance as a senior counsel.

"The issue is over since the finance minister has given an explanation to both Houses of Parliament," said Parliamentary affairs minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

When asked whether the government was worried that the Opposition had walked out after the finance minister's statement, he said that the Opposition had only staged a token walkout.

Earlier in the day, Chidambaram denied any knowledge of his wife being engaged by the CBDT as a special counsel and assured the House that he would have nipped the entire matter in the bud if he had got prior knowledge.

"Srimati Nalini Chidambaram has issued a statement explaining the circumstances under which Srimati Pushya Sitaraman persuaded her to accept the engagement," he said.

"She also pointed out that since 1996 she had voluntarily refrained from appearing for or against the Department, and that this was the sole case in which she had been engaged as a special counsel," he added.

Chidambaram said that he had no knowledge that Nalini Chidambaram had been engaged as a special counsel in the case. At this, those on the Opposition benche raised slogans in disbelief, asking that Chidambaram resign since engaging Nalini Chidambaram as a lawyer for a department under his ministry tantamounts to nepotism, and an improriety.

Chidambaram added that insinuations that one Karpagambal textile mill had benefited from the CBDT losing the case. 'The case involved a pure question of law. Whether expenditure on replacement of machinery would be accounted as revenue expenditure or capital expenditure?' he said.

'The question was decided by the Supreme Court as early as 1967. The department seems to have decided to re-agitate the matter. The department lost the case before the commissioners of income tax, agian before the income tax appellate tribunal and now before the Madras high court,' he added.

Beside, he added, the case involved 43 mils, and Sri Karpagalam mills does not figure in these mills. The NDA undertook a token walkout after the statement saying that Chidambaram should resign after the improriety came to light.

The treasury benches were, however, relieved that all allies of the coallition especially those supporting the government from the outside threw their weight behind the finance minister.

While the Left parties led by the CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said that the opposition NDA had many scams of their own to explain, Samajwadi party leader Ram Gopal Yadav, also said that since Nalini Chidambaram was a competent lawyer, the matter should end there.

The government is also counting on the fact that the end of the monson session would lessen the opposition's power in embarassing the government. The finance minister appears to have weathered this storm.