Indian politics at an inflection point: Karti Chidambaram

Chennai Congress MP Karti Chidambaram criticizes BJP's alleged attempts to change Constitution and destabilize Election Commission.

Congress MP Karti Chidambaram on Monday said that Indian politics was at an inflection point.

He was referring to Karnataka BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde’s comment that the party will change the Constitution if it gets a two-thirds majority in Parliament. He alleged that the intention was to declare India a ‘Hindu rashtra’.

Mr. Karti said that the sudden resignation of Election Commissioner Arun Goel, weeks before the notification of the Lok Sabha election without any explanation, had created a Constitutional crisis.

“Usually, such resignations are explained with a statement or in a press conference. But the Government of India has not explained it,” he said.

Furthermore, Mr. Karti criticised the alleged destabilisation of the Election Commission even as the electoral bonds were supposed to be made public, and accused the Union government of taking away the rights of the States.

“Prime Minister Modi talks of the Tamil Nadu government not implementing Central schemes. But he has never specifically mentioned which schemes were not being implemented by the State government. However, it is a fact that cess and surcharges are not being shared with the States. The devolution of funds to the States is very unfair – they [the Centre] want to run a unitary State,” he said.

“Most of the people who build houses under Central schemes, where the Centre gives ₹2 lakh, end up accruing debt. They [the Centre] only give a token amount, which is not enough to build a house, considering the price of building materials,” he said.