P. Chidambaram: Man With The Plan

Chidambaram is no mass leader, but his political acumen makes him indispensable to the Congress.

- Lakshmi Subramanian

A few weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi demonetised 1,000- and 500 - rupee notes on November 8, a motley crowd gathered at Sathyamurthy Bhavan, the Congress headquarters in Chennai. Young men and women, engineers and IT professionals, students and street traders sat on chairs spread across the open space before the building, as a dhoti-clad man began to speak on the ill effects of demonetisation.

The crowd grew steadily as the man lucidly explained, in Tamil, the consequences of demonetisation, its effect on the lives of ordinary people like them, and the complexities involved in detecting black money. “Black money is something that cannot be stocked, but which continues to flow,” he said.

The man at the podium was Palaniappan Chidambaram. Over the past one year, the 72-year-old Congress veteran has emerged as a major thorn in the side of the Modi government. As former Union finance minister, he has been incisive in his criticism of the government’s policy missteps, and his meticulously mounted attacks have resonated with the people. Through his writings, speeches and tweets, he has openly taken on Modi and galvanised the party to such an extent that others have followed in his footsteps.

If Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, after his well-received Berkeley speech in September, has been the face of his party’s recent resurgence, Chidambaram has been its chief architect. “The people’s disappointment and disapproval are turning them against the BJP and towards the Congress,” Chidambaram told THE WEEK in an exclusive interview. “When people warm up to a political party, that party will become more energised and active.”