Chidambaram at home - Too little too late
Politicians say that the exit of Home Minister Shivraj Patil is too little and too late. Economists say the exit of Finance Minister Chidambaram is too little and too late. Chidambaram is not exactly new to the Home Ministry as he was earlier a Minister for internal security and was virtually the de facto Home Minister. Officers in the Finance Ministry will perhaps be celebrating, for PC was not really a lovable boss, though nobody disputes his calibre.
Efficient Finance Ministers are generally responsible for the fall of governments, because in their anxiety to balance budgets, they often make the people unhappy.
Perhaps India's best Finance Minister of all times, Dr. Manmohan Singh is back in his favourite job, but this time only on an additional charge and that too with very little time to really take charge and change things - but maybe the good doctor can perhaps still do something to pull the economy out of the mess and make life a little less miserable for the common man. After all last time around, he did pull India out of deep financial crisis.
Dr. Manmohan Singh is not the first Prime Minister to hold the Finance Ministry.
In 1958, when TT Krishnamachari had to resign on the Mundhra scam - then it was called scandal, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru took over as Finance Minister and even presented the 1958 Budget. This was perhaps the first major fiscal scam in India and there was not even a charge that anyone had made a paisa in the scam. The FM had asked LIC to buy shares of Mundhra's companies - not for any financial gain, but TTK was worried about the impact of his high tax budget on the stock market.
It was Sonia Gandhi's father-in-law, Feroze Gandhi who broke the news in Parliament embarrassing his father-in-law. TT Krishnamachari made a comeback in 1964, but had to go in 1965, as he did not have a high opinion of his Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Sastry.
In 1969, Finance Minister Morarji Desai was against the Bank Nationalisation and lost his job when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi took over the Finance Ministry. She presented the 1970 budget.
In 1986, the then Finance Minister had grown too big and the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi shifted him to Defence and took over the Finance portfolio. Rajiv Gandhi presented the 1987 budget.
Now 21 years later, another Prime Minister has taken over the Finance portfolio, but Dr. Singh will not be able to present a budget as of now.
Also see our Guest Column today.