Congress leader and senior advocate P Chidambaram on Wednesday faced a massive backlash from a section of lawyers, claiming to be supporters of the Congress, outside the Calcutta High Court for representing agro-processing firm Keventer. Accusing Chidambaram of playing with the sentiment of the grand old party, the protestors claimed that it was not appropriate for him to represent the company when West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury is fighting the case challenging the TMC-led government’s sale of shares of Metro Dairy to the private firm.
The lawyers shouted slogans against Chidambaram, showed him black robes, called him a “TMC sympathizer” and held him responsible for the Congress’s poor performance in West Bengal.
#WATCH | Congress leader & advocate P Chidambaram faced protest by lawyers of Congress Cell at Calcutta HC where he was present in connection with a legal matter. They shouted slogans, showed him black robes & called him a TMC sympathiser & responsible for party's poor show in WB pic.twitter.com/SlH4QgbJSn— ANI (@ANI) May 4, 2022
One of the protestors named lawyer Kaustav Bagchi said Chidambaram, who is also 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. “Mr. Chidambaram is a CWC (Congress Working Committee) member and a very important leader,” Bagchi said.
Bagchi said he led the protest “as a Congress worker” and not as a lawyer and added that party workers will mete out similar treatment to any leader who acts against the interests of party in West Bengal. When contacted by PTI, Chowdhury said that 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 being asked about party colleague Chidambaram appearing for the the case, 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 by PTI, an amused Chidambaram said, “It’s a free country. I have no comments. Why should I comment on this?”
Alleging that the Mamata Banerjee-led 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 plea before the Calcutta high court and sought a probe into the matter.
The interest of West Bengal 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 firm 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.
(with inputs from PTI)
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