2G Scam, PAC & Chidambaram—Answers that Raise More Questions:

NDTV ran an exclusive interview with Home Minister, Chidambaram on the 7^th May, evening. The answers and responses of Chidambaram in the interview, raises more questions than they answer. Here we go:-

(Disclaimer:  The dialogues are not literal quotes, but carry the sense of the way the interview went.)

Chid: (To a question from NDTV): The PAC report is a coup. (“Coup”, Dictionary meaning: Successful stroke, move or gamble).

The Arising Question: (Thank God, a senior minister and ruling party member acknowledges the PAC’s “move” as “successful”.) But perhaps, Chid meant the word “Coup” as “revolution”.

If so, what would a conscientious opposition party do other than starting a revolution, when the government machinery and the P.M. and the whole cabinet stays in deep slumber while the nation, and its coffers are being looted by a Minister belonging to a “coalition” partner??

Chid:        Mr Joshi has misunderstood my words “closure of the matter”.

The Arising Question: What else could be understood when the talk is about the 2G Scam and the “matter” is sought to be “closed”??

NDTV: Sir, when as the Finance Minister you had objections to pricing of the spectrum, and the concerned minister was not heeding to it, as a minister responsible for the nation’s finances, should you not have taken up the matter with the P.M., or should the cabinet not have taken it up?

Chid: I can’t say about the “cabinet”. The P.M. had already taken up the matter and had written to the Telcom Minister.

The Arising Question: What credentials and respect would a senior minister with the Finance portfolio carry when he fails to prevent one of his colleagues from implementing decisions that are against the nation’s financial interests; but does not consider it necessary to raise the issue in the cabinet, and washes his hands off by stating he can’t say about the “Cabinet”?

And prefers not to take up the issue with the P.M. and to let the matter take its own course, since the P.M. is aware of it??

Does the Hon’ble Minister have conviction of his own judgment and a sense of commitment to his duties and responsibilities?

There are many more Questions that arise from the Answers given by the then-Finance Minister during the interview. But, as the saying in Odia goes “it is sufficient to check one particle from the rice being cooked to confirm if it is cooked and is soft enough to eat.”