Chidambaram bats for more autonomy for States

CHENNAI: It’s not only the institution’s autonomy in the country that is being eroded, but also of the States such as Kashmir, where the government has taken a majoritarian and muscular approach creating tension, said former Finance minister P Chidambaram, on Saturday.

He was speaking at a panel discussion on the book Undaunted: Saving The Idea of India written by him and launched recently.  The book is a compilation of articles he had contributed to leading newspapers in the country.

“We need to engage each of the States and give them more power and also strengthen the institutions, which the Congress will do if voted to power”, he said.

Coalition governments in the country have always delivered and there are examples for it such as the Deve Gowda government and a move like demonetisation will have never taken place, he said.

Praveen Chakravaty, chairman of Data Analytics wing of Congress, who was also part of the discussion, highlighted the minimum income guarantee scheme that is being prepared in the party’s manifesto for the parliamentary elections.

Chidambaram said there exist roughly 26 crore population in the bottom level, which is based on a survey taken and they all require support.

The Congress government will provide them with the minimum income guarantee to uplift them. N Sathyamurthy of Observer Research Foundation  and Vaishna Roy, Associate Editor of The Hindu were among those who participated.