Why Good Writing Works

P. Chidambaram illuminates the crucial interface between economics and politics. His style is simple, austere, impressive.

We know him as an economics person. Indeed Palaniappan Chidambaram has occupied one or other economics portfolio at the Centre longer than either the PM or the third member of the fabled Team Manmohan 8212; Montek Singh Ahluwalia. He was commerce minister in 1991-1996, finance minister in the two United Left coalitions in 1996-98 and now again since 2004, he is finance minister again. No one more qualified than PC to tell us about how India Shining/Rising/Resurgent/Empowered is doing.

But this book is a collection of articles written for The Indian Express and its sister Financial Express in the period in which he was not a minister. Indeed he was not even an MP, such being the price of belonging to 8220;a breakaway group of a breakaway group of the Congress8221;. So here he is like many of us, an ordinary citizen, just a bit better equipped to comment on the world around him. For three years plus he wrote a column every week and this is the result.

Of the 15 sections, seven are on economic issues 8212; agriculture, WTO, budget, etc 8212; and eight on political and broader matters. Yet the non-economic matters form the bulk of the book. What emerges is a person who is much more than a technopol. As one would expect he is very good on the economic issues and, even though he is opposed to the NDA, very fair even as he criticises Jaswant Singh8217;s budgets. He compliments Arun Jaitley for his WTO negotiating stance. 8220;The stumbling block is the mindset.8221; Jaitley has the better mindset and as PC says approvingly, 8220;The commerce minister must see himself as an evangelist.8221; He urges the then RBI Governor Bimal Jalan to throw away caution about the capital account. This is FM enjoying himself AWOL.

Yet the real find is in the political essays. Again the style, like the man, is austere, simple and impressive. In the section Ethics and Governance, he is scathing about the scandals in the defence ministry, while saying as he did when he was the responsible minister that while Bofors had given bribes he had no evidence that any minister took it. In the section on Politics and Governance, PC excoriates the media for trivialising the news, talks up the Millennium Development Goals, dumps on the civil service: 8220;In India, thanks to an archaic system of governance, 8216;More time is more money.8217;8221;

He sees that India Shining is a hollow slogan remote from rural realities. His critique of the legal morass India finds itself in yields a pithy sentence, 8220;We think without understanding the crucial difference that rule by law is the rule of law.8221; In 8216;An Uneven Tale of Two Republics8217; PC quickly sketches the histories of China and India but is merciless in criticising Congress as much as other parties. Of the 1980s era of the Gandhis, he says, 8220;Politics overshadowed economics. Communal strife replaced harmony. Sectarian demagoguery drowned saner voices.8221; I fear this may get him sacked! He concludes the India-China comparison thus: 8220;The next time you rue the lower rate of India8217;s economic growth, compared to China8217;s please, don8217;t blame democracy. It is rather the lack of democracy, in full and substantial measure, that may be the real reason for the uneven and lacklustre record of economic growth in India.8221;

At heart PC is a moralist. His scathing article on Mayawati8217;s birthday celebrations when she was CM of UP is worth the price of the whole book. 8220;The government, instead of being in the service of the people, will neglect and exploit the people in order to serve the personal interests of the rulers.8221; Hence: 8220;Even while Ms Mayawati celebrated her birthday, dozens of people were dying every day due to bitter cold. No one dies in a city or village simply because it is too cold. They die because they are also malnourished and hungry8230; To her and her mentor Mr Kanshiram, what assumes priority is 8216;swabhiman8217;8230; Not any of the indicators of a developed and just society8221;

Another gem is an account of how when Narendra Modi was questioned by the radical economist Jairas Banaji ever so mildly, he was set upon by the businessmen who had organised the meeting. PC thunders: 8220;Why do businessmen grovel before politicians, especially ministers? I know it is not because of admiration or respect for the office. The answer is simple. It is fear. Business does not fear a minister who is honest, candid and law-abiding8230; Businesspersons are mortally afraid of ministers who are corrupt, despotic and would not hesitate to unleash the might of government against them. The more corrupt and more despotic a minister is, the more he will have businesspersons crawling at his feet.8221;

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There is much more that I enjoyed in this book. PC emerges as a man you would love to have as a neighbour or a friend though not as a Prosecution Counsel unless your conscience is very clear indeed. I can8217;t wish that he gets back to such independent fearless writing as soon as he can. That would be putting pleasure before my duty to wish well for India. PC would enjoin us all to do our duty but in a most urbane literary way.