Aircel, 2G barbs to make monsoon session stormy for FM

Catch the transcript below for details. For full interview, watch the accompanying video.

Q: What is your expectation, is it (Parliament session) going to be a stormy one and not very productive one or could this session be different?

A: The overall political climate continues to be grim for this government. We have already entered not the last lap but the second last lap of the government, parties are positioning themselves. Apparently, the ministers had some good meetings with Opposition leaders but it is not clear how far these meetings go because Opposition would wish to corner the government. Now that Chidambaram is back in finance, they may wish to raise the question of Aircel again. There is a question of 2G and the recent disclosures on coal allocation. All these provide some ammunition to the Opposition and I don’t see why they would wish to let it go. At the same time, we shouldn’t assume that the entire session would be wasted.

Q: For Chidambaram, it has been noted that he is like a red rag to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Do you think they will become even more aggressive to corner him personally, something that they may not have done with Pranab Mukherjee?

A: Yes and that would in a sense be the counter to otherwise efficiency and other things that he has initiated in the ministry. The Opposition would wish to corner him, would wish to personally target him which was somewhat difficult with Pranab Mukherjee given his political acceptability and linkages across the parties. That could be a bit of difficulty he faces in all the big agenda that he has led out.

Q: Given that and given that Chidambaram would be aware of this, would he want to do something to create a furor in Parliament like maybe a diesel price hike or do you think he might want to go through the first session as finance minister with as much or as little disruption or provocation as possible?

A: A political animal would obviously choose the latter but in any case that much discussion and speculation about diesel price rise may not be quite in place. Do remember this is a fourth year of the government; a government, which faces the serious deficit of image, a government that faces coalitional deadlocks. And to trigger difficulties on fronts that is seen as anti-poor because this is how diesel price rise would be projected, it is probably the last thing the finance minister, or any government would want. I am not sure even if you had a different finance minister, even if he was a little more acceptable to the Opposition, that is something they would risk. You can simply imagine what the reaction of the Left would be. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party both join the Left on this particular question.