Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram today said that his only regret in life is that he never handled the finance portfolio in an absolute majority government.
“The only regret in my life will be that I was never Finance Minister in a Government with absolute majority,” Chidambaram told reporters in Ahmedabad.
Chidambaram, 72, was made the Finance Minister in 2004 when the Congress-led UPA had stormed to the power. He was, however, shifted to the Ministry of Home Affairs in in November 2008 in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
He returned as Finance Minister in July 2012, succeeding Pranab Mukherjee, who demitted office to become the President of India.
He had also served as the Finance Minister in the HD Deve Gowda government between June 1996 and April 1997; and in IK Gujral’s government between May 1997 and march 1998.
A corporate lawyer by profession, Chidambaram currently serves as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha.
Chidambaram also lashed out the BJP-led NDA government over the launch of Bullet train project. He said that development can’t be measured by introducing Bullet train, “it means better healthcare, cleaner air, toilets, transportation and gender justice”.
Days ago, Chidambaram had slammed the government over the GST roll back in tax slabs, saying it took four months for common sense to "germinate, flower and ripen into a fruit". He had said this while reacting to the GST Council’s decision to remove 178 items from the highest 28 per cent category to 18 per cent slab.
