Too early still to write off Congress, says Chidambaram

The Congress and its vice-president Rahul Gandhi appear to have dropped out of the 2014 electoral contest, but don't write that epitaph yet is what Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has advised in an interview to The Indian Express.

P Chidambaram. AFP.

The period around December 2008 and January 2009 was just as challenging for the party with the economic crisis and the Mumbai terror attack making things rather gloomy, Chidambaram has said.

"Yet we won the elections in May 2009. I think it is too early to write off any political party. Yes, the situation appears to be difficult. But the challenge before any political party is to overcome a difficult situation. I think it is possible to overcome the difficult situation. What degree of success we will meet, I can't say," he is quoted as saying.

Chidambaram also spoke on Narendra Modi, stating that Modi as PM would most likely combine Luddite economics and majoritarian politics, a "disastrous combination" for India. As for the BJP prime ministerial candidate's control over the party, Cidambaram reasoned that several leaders from Jayalalithaa to Naveen Patnaik wield a very high degree of authority, but the relevant thing is the nature and policies of that person. "In Shri Narendra Modi, we have someone who, in most matters, takes a majoritarian attitude, and, to make it worse, has a very authoritarian style. A majoritarian policy, and an authoritarian style of government would be a disaster for this country," Chidambaram said.

Modi should apologise for 2002, he opined, adding that Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and the Congress party have apologised for the 1984 riots against Sikhs in Delhi.

"Nearly 2,000 lives were lost. Don't you owe an apology? Do the victims' families deserve the contemptuous remark 'kutte ka bachcha'?" he asked.

On economy and investment, he defended the UPA from allegations of negligence by stating that while there is a slowdown worldwide, some countries have collapsed but that did not happen in India. The last 17 months have seen some corrective measures and a 6 percent growth rate in 2014 - 2015 is possible, he said.