Sunday, Sep 25, 2022
Journalism of Courage
P Chidambaram
P Chidambaram is former Finance minister of India.
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P Chidambaram writes: The leader and the president
P Chidambaram writes: Whether the Congress will get a Leader-cum-President or a Leader and a President, will be known in the next six days. This will be a crucial week for the Congress party as well as for the country... The unusual and obtrusive interest shown in the internal elections of the Congress party may not be entirely unjustified
Sun, Sep 25, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: Azadi, Autonomy and Mr Azad
As CWC member, MP and Leader of the Opposition, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad lent his voice to the original idea of Kashmir. It is an unfortunate turn of fate that Mr Azad, minus the status of MP, has embraced the opposite idea of Kashmir
Sun, Sep 18, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: They love unemployment and inflation
P Chidambaram writes: Business loves unemployment. Because there are so many people chasing a small number of jobs, the bargaining power of the job-providers is high. Consequently, wages are depressed. Wage increases are paltry. Government recruitment bodies and public sector enterprises love unemployment... Also, crime syndicates
Sun, Sep 11, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: What 13.5% reveals and hides
P Chidambaram writes: The crucial question is what are the implications for the future, especially for employment. The status of farmers and farm labour will remain the same and there will be little movement to non-farm jobs
Mon, Sep 05, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: My right to live without fear
P Chidambaram writes: I wish there was someone with authority who would reassure citizens that they can live without fear. Alas, today, there is none in India
Sun, Aug 28, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: Wish honourable PM will say
P Chidambaram writes: “My foremost worry is the growing communal divide. No country can progress until all the people — especially women, Dalits, Muslims and tribals — feel safe and secure and are able to share the fruits of progress.”
Sun, Aug 21, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: ‘Sovereign, Secular, Democratic’
Democracy is not just voting once every five years. Democracy has to be practised every day through dialogue, discussion, debate and dissent. By that standard, democracy in India is gasping for breath
Sun, Aug 14, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: The speech that I might have made
P Chidambaram writes: Rising prices are badly hurting the people, especially the poor and the middle class. Consumption and savings have fallen, household debt has risen and malnutrition (especially among women and children) has increased. Sadly, the government is not willing to acknowledge these facts
Sun, Aug 07, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: The Dragon in the Room
P Chidambaram writes: A confident and effective policy response to China can emerge only if the Government took the Opposition parties into confidence, shared the facts and, through frank discussions, crafted a policy to deter China. Otherwise, we will keep counting the rounds of talks and delude ourselves that India has, in the altered circumstances, a China policy
Sun, Jul 31, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: ‘Process is the Punishment’
P Chidambaram writes: Why are the accused denied bail? Pre-charge evidence, framing of charges, trial and arguments will — not may, it is will — take many years. Should the accused be in jail until the trial is over? Is pre-trial incarceration a substitute for trial, proof, conviction and punishment?
Sun, Jul 24, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: I am Mohammed Zubair
P Chidambaram writes: All governments are guilty of boasts, but this government goes over the top and never admits to any deficiency. I recall Harry Truman’s wise words: “Trust, but verify”.
Mon, Jul 18, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: How much do people care?
P Chidambaram writes: Nothing seems to stir the middle classes out of their self-imposed isolation. The relentless price rise, the crushing tax burden, the unemployment, the tragic internal migration of 2020, the Covid-related deaths, the excesses of the police and investigating agencies, the flagrant denial of human rights, the hate speeches, the exclusion of Muslims and Christians, the egregious Constitutional violations...
Sun, Jul 10, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: Two divided democracies
P Chidambaram writes: Thankfully, the Supreme Court of India has located the right to abortion in the right to privacy as well as in the right to life and personal liberty. In India, the law allows medical termination of pregnancy up to 24 weeks of gestational age and thereafter on the opinion of two medical practitioners after satisfaction of conditions such as injury to the woman’s physical or mental health
Sun, Jul 03, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: Penny wise, security foolish
P Chidambaram writes: The burgeoning pension bill is indeed a problem, but there is no evidence that alternative models were examined. The argument that the Agnipath model has been tried and tested in Israel is puerile. Israel has a small population, practically no unemployment and mandatory military service. Why was Agnipath not introduced as a pilot and tested before making it a universal and only mode of recruitment to the services?
Sun, Jun 26, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: More minus than plus in jobs
P Chidambaram writes: Jobs should have been the singular focus of the Modi government. It was not; it wasted 8 years. It used its social and political capital to divide the people of India
Sun, Jun 19, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: The gramophone company
P Chidambaram writes: The sad truth is that the Prime Minister has not uttered a word of condemnation. He thinks that he can ride this storm too. And life will go on. Truth is, political life will not go on in India to the exclusion of 202 million Muslims.
Sun, Jun 12, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: Economy still in the woods
P Chidambaram writes: No country can become an economic powerhouse if the Labour Force Participation Rate is 40 per cent. The bulk of India’s working age population is either not working or not looking for work. And despite educating more girls, the LFPR of women is an abysmal 9.4 per cent.
Sun, Jun 05, 2022
P Chidambaram writes: Rob Peter more, pay Peter less
P Chidambaram writes: Exhorting the states to cut VAT on petrol and diesel is akin to asking the states to beggar themselves: they will go broke and be obliged to borrow more or carry a begging bowl to the Centre for more grants-in-aid.
Sun, May 29, 2022
Time for a re-set
P Chidambaram writes: We cannot depart from the path of an open, liberal and market-based economy. That would be suicidal. Yet, we must take stock and, considering the global and domestic developments, re-set our economic policies. That requires the courage, clarity and speed of 1991
Sun, May 22, 2022
Good, bad and doubtful
P Chidambaram writes: The big, breaking, bad news is that a little more than one-half of India’s population did not complete 10 years of school education — 59 per cent of women and 49. 8 per cent of men.
Sun, May 15, 2022
Citizen vs State vs Liberty
P Chidambaram writes: There is a deliberate and determined attempt to strike at the very foundations of the Indian State. There is a stealthy attempt to deprive the people of their liberty and inalienable rights by chipping at the margins
Sun, May 08, 2022
Indianness is citizenship, not caste
P Chidambaram writes: If we equate caste with Indianness, we will find ourselves on a dangerous slope. I have no illusion that caste consciousness or caste-based discrimination will vanish overnight, but there are encouraging trends toward getting rid of the caste system.
Sun, May 01, 2022
Counting death, poverty and taxes
P Chidambaram writes: There were 6,64,369 villages in India in 2019. Assuming that 20% of these were too remote and therefore not affected by the pandemic, that leaves over 5,00,000 villages. Even if, two persons in every village had died due to Covid (a gross underestimate), that will out deaths at 10,00,000.
Sun, Apr 24, 2022
Hate speech thrives and divides
P Chidambaram writes: The BJP has enough evil geniuses who have the capacity to craft state-specific strategies: one such strategy is the deliberate effort to kick up controversies around food, dress and prayer in Karnataka
Sun, Apr 17, 2022
Dagger in the heart of liberty
P Chidambaram writes: The Home Minister verbally assured the Rajya Sabha that the techniques prohibited in Selvi will not be employed, but refused to incorporate the assurance in the Bill... The government resorted to the usual binary arguments: If prisoners have human rights, so do victims. The Bill is not about victims but about arrestees, detenus and prisoners
Sun, Apr 10, 2022