His detractors (and there are many, although every company head that Fortune India reached out to for this story refused to comment on record) claim that many of Swamy’s battles stem from personal animosity towards Chidambaram. Both politicians are from Tamil Nadu; Swamy was born in Madurai and fought a few elections from the city, which is less than 50 km away from Sivaganga, Chidambaram’s constituency. Even people in the BJP, now Swamy’s party, say that it is this animus that, perhaps, spurs Swamy in several cases. In both the airlines and telecom cases, Swamy sees Chidambaram’s hand in laws being bent and even broken. After all, he claims, in both cases the finance ministry and the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) cleared the licences. Swamy laughs when I ask him about this, but then, tellingly, calls Chidambaram “the only one who got away”, before adding, “but I haven’t given up yet”.