'No 56 Can Stop You': In Tihar Jail, Chidambaram Gets Birthday Letter from Son Karti

Karti Chidambaram on Monday penned a poignant letter to wish his father and former finance minister P Chidambaram — who is currently in jail — on his 74th birthday and took a dig at the government, saying “no 56!!! can stop” him.

The senior Congress leader is presently under detention in Delhi’s Tihar Jail in connection with the INX Media corruption case.

In the 2-page letter, Karti Chidambaram, whilst taking subtle digs at the BJP-led government at the centre, elaborated on all the events that have unfolded in the country ever since his father was jailed. “You are 74 years old and no 56!!! Can stop you," he wrote.

“Although you have never been one for grand celebrations, and nowadays in the country, we seem to be making grand celebrations out of every little thing; your birthday is not the same without you with us. We miss you, your absence tugs at our hearts, and we wish you were back home to cut a cake with all of us," Karti wrote on Twitter.

Chidambaram was lodged as prisoner number 1449 in a cell in Jail no. 7 on September 5.

Apprising his father of the latest developments, Karti covered a range of topics such as Kashmir, economic slowdown, Nirmala Sitharaman's remark on millennials and Piyush Goyal's gravity analogy, Assam NRC and the celebration of 100 days of the Modi government.

Karti Chidambaram begins with the Chandrayaan-2 mission, informing him about the lander Vikram losing communication with the Isro and "the big drama a little after that".

Karti Chidambaram went on to take a dig at Union Minister Piyush Goyal for his statement on the theory of gravity and Einstein. Karti has written, "It must be rather relatively easy for bhakts to get confused between the two".

While responding to a question on India's GDP which has dropped to 5 per cent in this fiscal, Piyush Goyal had said, "Don't get into the calculations that you see on television... don't get into those maths. Maths never helped Einstein discover gravity." He also touched upon Sitharaman’s comments on the automobile industry and the economy in general, poking fun at her remarks.

He also mentioned Minister of Environment Prakash Javadekar's press conference during the celebration of 100 days of Modi government and how his father "missed Prakash Javadekar celebrating the GDP at a six-year-low of five per cent as you [P Chidambaram] had pointed out" when the media asked about the court order to send him to jail.

On September 10, the Central government decided to directly buy apples from the apple growers in Jammu and Kashmir under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme. The scheme offers direct transfer subsidies to the bank account of individuals.

Poking fun at the development and the situation in Kashmir, Karti said that the Centre has granted apples its freedom when Kashmir has been under lockdown for over 40 days. "What next? Carpets? Only you will understand the true plight of the Kashmiris because both of you have been locked down unfairly".

The next hearing in this P Chidambaram's case is scheduled on September 19 in Rouse Avenue Court and on September 23 at Delhi High Court. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is likely to arrest him soon in connection to INX Media case as his anticipatory bail application was rejected by the Supreme Court.

Concluding his letter on a positive note, Karti writes, "I have faith that you too will come out guns blazing against this elaborately staged political drama and for now, we all await that hard-fought glory of truth.