What P Chidambaram likes and dislikes about Narendra Modi

In the four years Narendra Modi has spent running the Union government, he hasn't been starved for praise.

In the past twenty hours alone, he's been garlanded in encomiums - for his "insistence on integrity", his "clarity of policy and direction", his "enormous" self-confidence, and his "his ability to project, programme, or work in very, very large terms."

The first two came in a lengthy Facebook note penned by Arun Jaitley, Modi's BJP colleague. The second two - believe it or not - came from P Chidambaram.

But the Congressman's praise wasn't entirely unqualified.

"I admire his enormous self-confidence even when the growth graph is declining," the former Union Minister told India Today's Rajdeep Sardesai at a special Aaj Tak event held to review the Modi administration's performance.

"He gives the image that he's right on top and he's taking the country to a higher growth plane."

Chidambaram also identified a weakness - he said he wanted Modi to be prime ministerial "24 hours a day" - "whether he's embracing Trump or addressing a public meeting in Chamundeshwari."

The veteran leader said that in his view, the exemplar of prime ministerial conduct was Jawaharlal Nehru.

On the other hand, he spoke of "numerous" examples where he wished Modi hadn't said or done a certain thing.

Chidambaram's comments came during a wide-ranging talk on such issues as fuel prices, GST, demonetisation, and next year's general elections.

Watch the special Panchayat Aaj Tak event live here, and read the latest stories in Hindi and English.

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