Veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram, left, addresses the media during a press conference at Sathiyamurthy Bhavan in Chennai on Sunday. | Photo credit: PTI
Veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday urged the Union government to stop “vindictive actions” against party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in connection with the National Herald case after special judge Vishal Gogne of the Rouse Avenue court dismissed the Directorate of Enforcement’s (ED) money laundering complaint.
Addressing reporters at Satyamurthy Bhavan, the headquarters of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC), in Chennai, the former Union finance minister also termed the Centre’s move to scrap the Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) and replace it with a new law as the “second killing of Mahatma Gandhi” and said his party for the protests by Vikte-Gandhi Bharaga and Vikte-garita BharaG Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill has been withdrawn. (President Droupadi Murmu approved the bill on Sunday.)
In the National Herald case, Mr. Chidambaram said it was a fabricated and politically motivated allegation. He alleged that the ED was involved in illegal conduct and no First Information Report (FIR) was filed in the case. “There was no monetary transaction, how can anyone claim that it is legal or illegal,” Mr. Chidambaram said. He claimed that there is no information yet on whether the Union government has filed an appeal and if they have gone ahead with the appeal, it shows their lack of wisdom and they have not learned their lesson. “We have to make strong arguments,” he said.
VB-G RAM G Bill
On the VB-G RAM G Bill, Mr. Chidambaram said that the name of the Bill was neither in proper English nor in the Indian language, but only in Hindi words written in English letters, which even the ministers found difficult to understand.
“The new unofficial official language of the central government seems to be Hindi words written in English letters. People who know only Hindi cannot read the script, while English speakers do not understand the meaning,” Mr Chidambaram said in a post on X.
Mr. Chidambaram said that while MNREGA, the 100 days a year, wage employment guarantee scheme, has acted as a lifeline for 12 million families, especially women, to ensure that the household does not go to bed hungry and dejected, the new bill is taking away the benefits.
He said that in the proposed scheme, the Center would make a “normative allocation” of funds to each state, expenditure beyond the allocated funds would be borne by the state and the areas where the scheme would be implemented would be notified by the Centre, making it a supply-driven system. “The proposed law contains several serious flaws. It is no longer a job guarantee scheme. There is no guarantee and the poor will suffer the most,” he claimed.
On a special intensive revision of electoral rolls, Mr. Chidambaram pointed out that about 66 million voters in the state and 35 million voters in Chennai were listed without valid addresses, which was surprising. “Even the AIADMK supports it, while parties like the Congress and the DMK have called for a fix,” he added.
Published – 21 Dec 2025 22:53 IST
