Chidambaram Spins A Yarn

Chidambaram Spins A Yarn

P. Chidambaram wears his arrogance like a halo at all times. It persuades himself to think that he is somehow blameless and above the common fray. He called the first of his farewell press conferences, in which he dressed up an apology as triumphalism. The surmise is that most probably he was instructed by his High Command to try and steal some of Narendra Modi’s thunder with regard to the country’s finances and economy. 

So Chidambaram came, his frustration writ large on his tired face, and talked down his nose to the media. He glossed over his own dismal performance. He spoke instead about the stability imparted lately because of a controlled current account deficit. He was asked about growth. He was asked about the state of industry. He was asked about gold imports. But when Chidambaram feels under pressure, he responds with an even more withering haughtiness rather than answers.

Nevertheless, his recent actions tend to speak louder than his stone-walling words. He claimed once again that he is not retiring from politics even though he has handed over his constituency in Tamil Nadu to his untried son. He knows there is little chance of winning this time either way. His fragile grass-roots credentials also must have played its part.

Why then did Chidambaram call a press conference? When he has been, more than once, publicly distraught, at the economy being burdened by colossal debt due to Sonia Gandhi’s reckless welfare initiatives. Of course, he had absolutely no say in the matter, and was required to just juggle the books to find an accommodation.  

The strategic brief now must have been to try and wrest some of the credit for the sharp rise in the stock markets and the value of the rupee for himself and the Congress Party. He tried to dispel the widely held view that the money and stock markets are rallying in the expectation of a Modi-led government. One that is expected to be stable, decisive, and deliver good governance to boot.

What is Chidambaram’s biggest achievement as he sees it now?  It is ‘stability’, he says, by virtue of his containment of the CAD, the reduction in inflation, the rise in the value of the rupee and all round improvements in outlook. And he drummed this home despite it having come at the end of the UPA tenure. That the CAD was previously out of control because of wild and unplanned UPA expenditure earlier was not mentioned. Also he did not mention that it has been ‘contained’ now because a lot of the welfare expenditure committed has been pushed to the next fiscal. This was a trick Chidambaram performed at the Vote On Account itself. 

In his own book, Chidambaram thought he endeared himself to the media by dismissing BJP’s former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha’s 18 questions as ‘puerile’, and asking why Yashwant Sinha was not standing for elections this time, instead of his son.

Chidambaram staunchly refused to accept criticism for his own actions, however theoretical or wasteful. But he disdainfully attributed Gujarat’s spectacular growth rates to a catch-all ‘crony capitalism’. In this, he echoes, of all people, the 49 day former Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal, who commands almost as much credibility as himself.  

Chidambaram and Kejriwal,, acute observers both, cannot however explain how  Narendra Modi won three successive terms of keenly contested state elections, when the only people ostensibly benefited were his extremely rich ‘cronies’.

Chidambaram also did not hesitate to blame Pranab Mukherjee, now the President, and then  his predecessor as FM, for the state of the economy under his watch. He said the ‘rescue act’ he undertook on taking over, should have begun a year before, implying that Mukherjee had failed to act. And blaming Mukherjee for why he failed to stem the rot any sooner, probably makes it alright in his own eyes.

Of course, Chidambaram’s method to control both the deficit and inflation was to slow the economy to a state of near stagflation. Very little has been happening in the economy for many quarters now and governance too is at a stand-still.

During the press conference, Chidambaram also spoke about the ‘character’ of  Narendra Modi with immense distaste, giving examples of the latter’s alleged phraseology to illustrate  what he meant. The idea probably was to trash Modi’s image and cast doubt on how his probable victory in the general elections could make the markets happy in anticipation.

Finally, to underline that he was still the FM, Chidambaram allowed that he may loosen gold imports soon. Again, what he did not say is the huge amount of gold being smuggled into the country, in a throwback to the heady days of Haji Mastan.  Chidambaram probably thinks, in his contempt for the intelligence of the general public, that stage-management is just as good as the truth. And he fancies, on the day before April Fool’s Day, that he is very good at it too.

(827 words)

April 1^st, 2014

Gautam Mukherjee