Facing criticism for “running away” from a tough election, Union finance minister P. Chidambaram justifies his abstention from the April 24 battle. He believes the UPA should be appreciated for controlling inflation, a burning issue the Opposition easily corners the Congress with. From accusing Modi and Jayalailthaa of being confrontationist CMs to calling Modi a compulsive liar whose development model would spell disaster for the country, the lawyer-politician bares his heart on a host of issues in this exclusive interview at his ancestral home in Karaikudi on the sidelines of hectic campaign for his son Karthi.
Q. It is widely believed that UPA–I and -II had the best teams ever with you at helm of the finance ministry besides a good set of bureaucrats. It brought several reformatory schemes like MNREGA and RTI and RTE. All that good work you did in the last two tenures has been discredited by the Opposition owing to inflation, which is used as one of the main poll planks against you. What went wrong?
A. Inflation has come down. Both WPI (wholesale price index) and CPI (consumer price index) have come down. What was it in 2012 and what is it today? Inflation has come down. WPI is five percent. It used to be ten percentile and above. CPI used to be about 14% or so. Now it is 7.68% or so. Therefore you must appreciate the efforts taken to bring down inflation. Why did inflation go up? Inflation went up because we adopted an expansionist monetary policy. Every country in the world did that between 2008 and 2011. We also adopted an expansionist monetary policy. We spent more than we had. We ran up our fiscal deficit. We imported lot of goods. The current account deficit also went up. And therefore inflation went out of control. The question therefore to be asked is not that inflation is high today but that inflation was high between 2008 and 2011 and since then we have taken a number of measure to moderate inflation, which has come down to one-half the level it was two years ago.
Q. Many are talking about the Gujarat model of development. Mr Modi insists it should be emulated. Being an economist and finance minister, what’s your take on this?
A. Complete rubbish. At this evening’s rally, I will list a number of parameters and I will tell you what Gujarat’s rank is in each parameter. There is hardly any parameter in which Gujarat is number one. Hardly any... In the Raghuram Rajan committee, after considering a number of parameters, they have ranked Gujarat as 12. Which means in 28 states, it is somewhere in the middle. So what is extraordinary about Gujarat? There are 11 states ranked above Gujarat. There are 16 states ranked below Gujarat. Gujarat is an average performing state led by an average chief minister and with less than average ministers.
Q. The Congress has been repeatedly attacked on the corruption front. In fact, L.K. Advani said it was raining scams. Mr Modi even said that was the reason why some of the Congress seniors are not contesting. How are you countering this?
A. Corruption may be an issue that is affecting the minds and thinking of the people. But I have not heard of any issue of corruption being raised in election campaign. The issues people raise in election campaign are that the state government is not providing them 100 days of work, not providing them the full wage that has been stipulated for the work, that there is water shortage, that there are usual complaints about bureaucracy not attending to where there is problem and old age pension not being received. These are the issues people are raising. I have not come across anyone in the last six-seven weeks who stopped me and asked me about corruption. But, it is quite possible that subliminally corruption is an issue that is weighing in the minds of the people. It is quite possible.
Q. SP leader Mulayam Singh said some BJP leaders were in touch with him. And even some BJP seniors do not want Modi as PM. How do you see it?
A. I don’t know who has been in touch with Mulayam Singh Yadav. How can I answer? But there is enough evidence to believe that a number of senior BJP leaders are not happy with Modi being anointed as the prime ministerial candidate and given a chance they will probably trip him.
Q. What do you think gave BJP the confidence to revive the Ram Temple and uniform civil code demands?
A. It stems out of arrogance. They want to polarise the voters. They have come to the conclusion that they can do without the votes of the minorities. Therefore they have brought these issues back to the table in order to send fear among the minority voters in the hope that the others will consolidate behind them. I sincerely hope that others will not consolidate behind them. And they will see through this rather diabolical effort to polarise the electorate.
Q. Your son Karti said there should be one tall Congress leader in TN and everybody in the party should rally behind him. Is he indicating your leadership in 2016? Will you run for chief ministership in 2016?
A. I don’t think so. I would like to work for the party. The last tall leader in Congress was Mr Kamaraj; to some extent Mr Moopanar. But even he was not given a free hand. I think there should be one leader who is completely given a free hand to recast the party. I think there is a good chance for the Congress to become a party to reckon with in the 2016 elections.
Q. Despite you clarifying, Modi keeps calling you a recounting minister? Comment.
A. He is a compulsive liar.