Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Why is Chidambaram lying?' that was published in Newsband

Why is Chidambaram lying?

Congress leader and former Union Minister P. Chidambaram claims that the Congress has never said “officially” that its president Rahul Gandhi should be the prime minister if an Opposition alliance formed the next government. “An alliance should take shape, that alliance should win, and the alliance parties will decide who will be the prime minister,” he said. Chidambaram insisted that the Congress’s focus was on dislodging the BJP government

Is Chidambaram the President of Congress? The current President is Gandhi. And he has said many times over recently, without anyone from Congress complaining, that he is the PM candidate from the Congress. So either Chidambaram is simply lying or playing his game twisting words out of shaoe to suit his purpose.

The senior Congress leader might be fully aware that the bargaining capacity would be more in the event of his party acquitting itself creditably, in the event of an alliance of opposition parties materializing and facing the polls as a united front and hence this may be considered as a ruse to foster unity to keep the flock together which might get scattered if pressed further.

Lying has become a contagious disease in the Congress Party and the source of the contagion is none other than its President, Rahul Gandhi. Chidambaram knows fully well about the declarations of Rahul Gandhi to be PM candidate in 2019 in India as well as abroad while addressing students at Berkeley University. He also knows fully well the rebuke of PM Modi that the naamdar, who did not have confidence in his alliance partners, who did not even care for Congress's internal democracy, and whose arrogance reached cloud seven, declared himself that he would be the Prime Minister in 2019 as he felt that the PM's chair was his ancestral right and was reserved for one family and no one else could sit on it. Clearly, Chidambaram is lying when he says, "Congress has never said ‘officially’ that its president Rahul Gandhi should be the prime minister if an Opposition alliance formed the next government." Or, he dismisses the words of his boss are not worth a hill of beans.

Chidambaram was a finance minister when Deve Gowda was the PM of India. We all thought that Indian finance was in good hands to govern. After Gowda's departure we saw the real character of Chidambaram. First his involvement in fake currency scandal, later the involvement in cricket scandals, etc.

Chidambaram is saying that the Congress’s focus was on dislodging the BJP government and bringing in a “progressive” alternative.If Congress intention is to topple BJP in elections - that is understandable. But the politics Congress played in Karnataka elections makes you wonder if Congress is fit to govern India.