Former finance minister P.
Former finance minister P. Chidambaram on Friday hit out at the Modi government for rising intolerance in the country saying “instead of the country’s economy, the narrative is dominated by intolerance”. On a day when the NDA government came out with its Economic Survey, the former finance minister rued the fact that the “narrative of debates and discussions in the country is centred around intolerance rather than the economic situation”.
“Instead of a rising economy, there is rising intolerance,” Mr Chidambaram said as he branded 2015 as “the most polarised year in the history of India after 1947 and Babri demolition”. The former finance minister on Friday released his book Standing Guard: A year in Opposition, in the presence of former Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and other Congress top leadership besides other luminaries. He also sided with the JNU protests cautioning the government not to treat a “university like a monastery’’ maintaining university students have a “right to be wrong”.
“A university is not a monastery. A university is a place where I , at my age, have a right to be wrong. The debate is being framed in a perverse manner,” he said.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdulah, who was also present at the occasion, accused the Modi government of branding anyone who speaks against the government as ‘’anti national’’ and lamented the fact that the Opposition is being treated like an enemy.
“This government has very conveniently packaged everybody who has opposed them as anti-nationals. Our opposition to this government does not make us anti-nationals. The nation is much bigger than the government,” Mr Abdullah said.
Mr Chidambaram said more and more people are becoming apprehensive due to the rising intolerance and polarisation that has taken place within two years of the NDA regime. “I am proud to be in Opposition because in the Opposition I am nobody’s enemy.’’ Quoting a Tamil poet, he added, “A King who has no critic would be defeated even without enemies’’.
On the controversial GST Bill, Mr Chidambaram said, ‘It would be a pity if the GST is passed on the strength of numbers. It should be passed on the strength of the law by convincing the Parliament and removing the flaws. However, the chief economic advisor has virtually endorsed the law,” he said.
