4.Single party rule is the best way to go forward

Chidambaram bats for single party rule at Centre

The finance Minister says Indian polity was fractured and Indian votes were even more fractured

Bangalore: Making out a strong case for a single party rule, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday appealed to the people to ensure that the party they voted had a working majority so that it could implement its promises.

"In a democracy, people deserve a government that delivers and a government can only deliver when the people vote for a party that has a working majority", he said at a function here, virtually batting for revival of single party rule in the country.

Speaking at a book reading function of his book, "View From Outside-Why Good Economics Works For Everyone", he said Indian polity was fractured and Indian votes were even more fractured, obviously referring to the constraints of running a coalition government.

He said the UPA had worked with Left parties and that they were able to work together "on some areas but not on other areas."

In an apparent reference to the government's unfinished economic reforms agenda, Chidambaram said that he now hoped that those who had been complaining over lost time would support the UPA measures in Parliament. These political parties had supported the UPA in the committees and the same should be extended on the floor of the House.

The government hopes to push through some legislative and non-legislative measures and make up for the lost time, he said.

Chidambaram said, of late, irrelevant issues had come to dominate both political and media space. "We must retrieve the space for matters that are legitimate concerns of the poeple".

Disapproving comparison of India with other countries, he said: "Our only comparison can be with China. Why can't we overtake China, when can we overtake China, should be our concern".

He said India should dream and be determined to mobilise resources to stage the Olympics one day like China had done. "By 2020 India should be a large enough superpower and have the resources and capacity to stage the Olympics", he said.

The book reading session had Biocon CMD, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Indian Express Group Editor-in-chief, Shekhar Gupta, co-chairman of Infosys Technologies Nandan Nilekani and MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar commenting on the book.

Replying to the panelists who wanted to know why the minister had not implemented many of the views he had expressed in the book, Chidambaram said in a lighter vein that "when one is the Finance Minister one has to answer for everyone's sins and one's own sins as well as the collective since committed by the government. No one wants the job of the Finance Minister," he said amidst laughter.

He said it took nearly 10-15 years to complete the agenda and the same could not be achieved in a short span.

He said reforms were always on the agenda of the UPA.

The book is a collection of columns originally published in the Indian Express and the Financial Express. The columns were written from 2002 to 2004.