Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Sunday cited the public snub delivered by Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan as an instance of the BJP-led government’s “distortion” of public discourse.

Strongly defending the RBI Governor who was attacked for using the proverb “one-eyed king in the land of the blind” in the context of India’s growth appearing accentuated contrasted with the weak global growth, Chidambaram said: “A junior minister was asked to snub the Governor of the Reserve Bank. For what? For quoting an ancient proverb to highlight that fact that instead of getting euphoric, we should be level-headed and look at the unfinished task.

“That was the thrust of his remarks. But they are finding fault with his choice of words? And delivering a snub to him in public!”

Chidambaram said the episode exposes the intolerance of the present government to even the slightest criticism. “I think far from diminishing the stature of Dr Raghuram Rajan, this government has exposed its inability to tolerate anything that appears to be the slightest criticism of its drum-beating.

“And, in my view, Dr Rajan was not criticising or disparaging the growth. He was only highlighting the unfinished work,” Chidambaram said in an exclusive interview to BusinessLine .

Ishrat Jahan case Chidambaram was discussing this in the context of the criticism he has been facing for editing the Central Government’s affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case in Gujarat in June 2004. Under Chidambaram’s watch at the Home Ministry, the Centre had filed two affidavits in the case — the first quoting intelligence inputs to connect the slain Ishrat Jahan to terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiyyeba (LeT), and the second which said the intelligence inputs could not be a justification of the killing of Ishrat and three others.

For the first time, Chidambaram not only owned up to the two affidavits but accused the BJP of raking up this controversy to divert attention from the fact that the Gujarat police gunned down four people in an alleged fake encounter.

“This affidavit controversy is only to divert attention from the real issue in the Ishrat Jahan case. The real issue is whether there was a fake encounter and whether four people already in custody were killed in that fake encounter.

“Now, coming to the affidavits, the Home Minister does not sign affidavits. It is signed by an Under Secretary. Although I have no recollection of seeing the first affidavit, let us presume that I did. Then came the report of Magistrate SP Tamang.

“This report caused an uproar and there was a demand mainly from Gujarat that the Government of India should clarify or should dispel the misinterpretation being placed on the first affidavit. This is why a second, short affidavit was filed,” he said.

Oil price bonanza Chidambaram, who also held office as Finance Minister, accused the BJP Government of ineptness in not being able to use the oil price bonanza in expanding welfare or investment.

“They (the BJP) have turned their face against welfare governance. According to my calculation, and nobody else has given alternative numbers, the bonanza from oil to the Central Government is ₹1,40,000 crore in 2015-16. They could have expanded welfare and investment. They did not. The reason is that they did not collect their non-tax revenue and did not go through the disinvestment programme. And because nominal growth was low, the fiscal deficit actually expanded and they had to fill that gap,” he said.

“So, the bulk of this ₹1,40,000 crore was used to fill three huge holes in the Budget numbers. And this is after cutting ₹75,000 crore in the Budget Estimates versus the Revised Estimates of the previous year. The result is that, on the one hand, you cut ₹75,000 crore from the welfare programmes and, on the other, you reap a bonanza of ₹1,40,000 crore and then use it to fill these holes which you created for yourself. That is why there is so much distress, especially in the rural sector,” he added.

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