As Tamil Nadu descends deeper into a political crisis, Congress leader Karti Chidambaram questioned the morality of Sasikala’s ascension to the chief minister’s post and called for immediate elections in the state. Excerpts from an interview:
Q: What should be the way forward to resolve the crisis unfolding in Tamil Nadu?
Karti Chidambaram: There is no functioning government in Tamil Nadu since 22 September 2016. The mandate in 2016 was for Jayalalithaa. That mandate is not transferable to anyone. Both OPS (Pannerselvam) and Sasikala do not have the mandate of the people. While legally the ADMK has the numbers, morally it doesn’t have any authority to rule Tamil Nadu. The state needs a clear and decisive leadership. These palace intrigues, shadow games do no favour to Tamil Nadu. The assembly must be dissolved and elections must be called immediately. That is the only solution to the current situation.
Q: Coming to matters of your own party, what do you think has been the reason behind the decline of the Congress in 2014? And how can the party come back on track?
KC: Being 10 years in government brings in a natural anti-incumbency mood. We didn’t communicate very well. All elections are about the future and our vision for that future wasn’t articulated. We missed a few key alliances. For example in Tamil Nadu, we faced the elections without any alliance partner.
The party must decentralize decision-making. This concentrated high command structure doesn’t work at a time where there are multiple regional and sub-regional parties. The party must not be afraid to let ambitious regional leaders grow and thrive. Do you feel that politics in India has changed?
Q: Do you feel that politics in India has changed?
KC: Politics is about personalities. This is the trend world over. To succeed the messenger and the personality of the messenger are as crucial as the message. Parliamentary politics has become very Presidential. Tamil Nadu was perhaps the first state to become Presidential. In the last 50 years, the bulk of the time has been dominated by Karunanidhi, MGR and Jayalalithaa. The elections were contests between personalities not between competing ideologies. People rarely vote for an MLA or MP, they are voting for the party/leader they want to win to form government. In 2014 the vote was for Narendra Modi to be PM. Most people would be hard-pressed to name their MP. Similar is the case of Arvind Kejriwal or Jayalalithaa. People were voting for them to be CM. This will be the trend in the future too. The Congress must accept and embrace this trend. A clear PM and respective CM candidates must be identified. They must be good communicators.
Q: What are your views on demonetisation?
KC: This demonetisation is a clumsy and ill thought out idea disastrously implemented. None of the stated objectives have been achieved. The constant flip-flops by the government and the RBI are a testimony to the dismal failure. The economy is going to hurt.
There is anger among the people. Yes, it has not manifested into visible protests because opposition parties haven’t mobilized public angst. But this does not mean that it won’t reflect when people vote.
