India sure to have new Finance Minister
WHATEVER be the result of the elections, India is sure to have a new Finance Minister in less than two months. Since we began the great economic open up in 1991, we had only Finance Ministers - Manmohan Singh, Jaswant Singh, P. Chidambaram, Yashwant Sinha and Pranab Mukherjee and for different reasons all of them are out of reckoning for the post of the new Finance Minister.
Chidambaram has chosen to opt out of the election fray. He says, "enough is enough in Delhi and I should work for the people in my hometown". He also says that
++ He is 68 years old, and probably left with another seven to ten years of active life.
++ Had enough wealth, enough to lead a comfortable life for the next ten years;
++ wife, a practising advocate, was earning good money. So was his daughter-in-law, a medical practitioner.
++ He had served for 30 years in Delhi, working 17-18 hours a day.
++ Had he been given relatively light portfolios such as Civil Aviation or Textiles, he could have worked for two-three hours a day and relaxed.
Elect One; get Two: Campaigning for his son Karti in the Sivaganaga Constituency, Chidambaram said that like hitting two mangoes with one stone, the people could elect Karti to Parliament and himself to serve in the constituency with their one vote. A good package indeed, but when Hillary Clinton made such an offer, there weren't many takers.