P Chidambaram

P Chidambaram is former Finance minister of India.

The rest of India should imagine a lockdown without free speech and expression or access to newspapers, television, mobile telephones, Internet, hospitals, police stations, courts and elected representatives. That is the situation today.

The spider’s web

Sun, Jul 26, 2020

Mr Pilot is not cut from the same cloth as the BJP is, or so we believed. He should have channelled all his energies to help the people fight the pandemic as well as get the state’s economy back on its feet.

Way to Depsang or Doklam?

Sun, Jul 19, 2020

The ‘no troops land’ (akin to a no man’s land) may lead to peace and tranquillity on the border, but it will not resolve the border question. It is obvious that some kind of buffer zone is being created.

Debacle of summit diplomacy

Sun, Jul 12, 2020

The fallout for India is a diplomatic disaster, a military setback (at least temporarily) and a complete wipe-out of the gains since 1993.

Rescue liberty from law

Sun, Jul 05, 2020

It is depressing that the law concerning personal liberty remains one in theory and another in practice. Mercifully, things are changing.

Do you see green shoots?

Sun, Jun 28, 2020

If the Finance Ministry is so sanguine, why does it not predict positive GDP growth in 2020-21? The MoF dare not!

Dance of death

Mon, Jun 22, 2020

Mr Modi’s dream that the 21st century will be a China-India led Asian century is practically over. It is obvious that Mr Modi did not take a correct measure of Mr Xi.

Dragon invites elephant to dance

Sun, Jun 14, 2020

Despite meeting several times in the last six years, Mr Modi has not been able to achieve any notable success in his interactions with Mr Xi.

‘Getting growth back not difficult’

Mon, Jun 08, 2020

My final submission to the Honourable Prime Minister: Axe your current economic advisers and bring in a new team that will give you sound advice.

Sentinel on the qui vive

Sun, May 31, 2020

P Chidambaram writes: Over the years, the Supreme Court, like any other institution and like in any other country, stumbled on occasion, but quickly lifted itself, dusted the sand, and strode like a colossus.

Spend, borrow, monetize

Sat, May 30, 2020

The model advocated by almost all economists is fiscal stimulus. That means only one thing: spend more.

If there is no additional borrowing, there can be no additional expenditure, no fiscal stimulus

Sun, May 17, 2020

On May 12, the Prime Minister grabbed the headline with the announcement of a Rs 20 lakh crore Economic Stimulus Package — but left the page blank! Beginning May 13, the Finance Minister started giving out the ‘details’ of the package. The people left fuming were the farmers; migrants; and workers.

If the lockdown is not lifted, there may be defiance on a larger scale than at present

Sun, May 10, 2020

In the last 47 days, more MSMEs have been pushed over the brink, more millions of poor people have been pushed into destitution, and more thousands of middle-class families have been pushed into indebtedness.

We will never know how many people died of starvation, because no state government will admit to starvation deaths

Mon, May 04, 2020

In a country where malnutrition is entrenched, especially among children, there is the danger of hunger becoming widespread too.

Hoarding government, starving people

Sun, Apr 26, 2020

In a country where malnutrition is entrenched, especially among children, there is the danger of hunger becoming widespread too. TV, print and social media are full of anecdotal evidence that many families are going hungry and some are starving.

Revival of the economy requires ideas, a plan, and effective implementation

Sun, Apr 19, 2020

A talent-short government, if it is serious, will constitute a Task Force consisting of economists like Dr Raghuram Rajan, Dr Arvind Panagariya, Dr Esther Duflo, Dr Arvind Subramanian, Dr Isaac Thomas, Dr Himanshu, Dr Jean Dreze and Dr Sajjid Chinoy to recommend a hundred things that have to be done.

Centre’s Financial Action Plan was big factor in pushing migrant workers to leave towns

Sun, Apr 12, 2020

We must remonetise the poor — that is, put cash in their hands. The goal is to cover up to 50 per cent of the 26 crore families in India, roughly up to 13 crore families.

Not all wealth commanded by richest country of the world seems to be of any use

Sun, Apr 05, 2020

P Chidambaram writes: Will humanity ultimately triumph over the epidemic? The tallest living Tamil poet, Mr Vairamuthu, thinks so, and has penned a beautiful poem on coronavirus

Unpreparedness has been the hallmark of Modi government since the first Covid-19 case

Sun, Mar 29, 2020

Not only was the country not prepared for a nationwide lockdown, even the Central government was unprepared. How can one otherwise explain the fact that the Economic Task Force announced by the PM on March 19 has not been constituted so far?

Fighting COVID-19 and beyond

Sun, Mar 22, 2020

Given that scale of expenditure, it is possible to find, say, Rs 5,00,000 crore towards mitigating COVID-19 over the next 6 months. This is a moral and economic imperative and we must find the money and spend it.

RBI and govt are poised to implement a rescue plan for Yes Bank that can be only described as bizarre

Sun, Mar 15, 2020

The people and Parliament must demand that the names of borrowers (especially the big defaulting ones) be published and the individuals or committees that approved the loans be asked to explain.

Economic growth in 2020 may decline further if coronavirus disrupts more production

Sun, Mar 08, 2020

India has cause to worry. As the Prime Minister said a few days ago, we must prepare, not panic. Very true, but how prepared is the country? More pertinently, how prepared is each state of the country?

Many suspect that BJP wants people to take to the streets and polarisation to be complete

Sun, Mar 01, 2020

There is growing suspicion that the BJP is working to a plan. The BJP is emboldened to pursue its partisan agenda owing to the massive majority it enjoys in the Lok Sabha and the fact that Lok Sabha elections are four years away.

P Chidambaram writes: The magic words ‘national interest’ do not signal correctness but finality

Sun, Feb 23, 2020

The magic words are ‘national interest’. They do not signal correctness, they signal finality. Because the PM has declared that the decisions were taken in national interest, he expects that all criticism should cease and all debate should end.

P Chidambaram writes: May the tukde tukde gangs grow stronger until they achieve their Constitutional goals

Sun, Feb 16, 2020

There is nothing unusual or inherently wrong about a right-wing ideology. It is only when right-wing leaders politicise their religion and attempt to divide people on the ground of religion that the Constitution is violated and social harmony is disrupted. The BJP has done just that.

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