2014 elections may not throw up government with 'solid' majority: Chidambaram

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said he does not think India will get a government with "solid majority" after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

 

"But if does, then it would be a turning point to get over weaknesses," he said on Saturday. He was speaking in a panel discussion at a National Stock Exchange event.

 

"I think let's wait for the elections. I am not sure that the elections will throw up a government with a solid majority in Parliament," he said.

 

The general elections are due to be completed by May next year.

 

The Congress, which leads the UPA government at the Centre, faced defeat in the recently-concluded elections in four states - Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi.

 

India is a democracy that is going through a phase of churning, he said.

 

In the last 60-odd years, he opined, this is the "weakest point" in India's democracy.

 

"The executive has been hindered or hampered by over reach of our institutions, Parliament is nearly totally paralysed and there is a mistaken, romantic view that there is a judicial solutions to our problems," the Finance Minister said. 

 

"I think in terms of the three branches of the government coming together, which a necessary precondition, we are in one of the weakest points in India's history. We have to overcome this."

 

"Parliament's business is to make laws and the judiciary must acknowledge that. There are no judicial standards by which judges can judge and decide upon the issues. Judges can only decide on matters where there are judicial standards," he added. 

 

Even as he expressed concern over key bills getting stuck in Parliament, Mr Chidambaram, without naming, also blamed various institutions for hampering executive's functions.

 

During the panel discussion, global business magazine Economist's former editor-in-chief Bill Emmott said that there were concerns globally over India's slow pace of reforms, policy limitations and efficacy of the government.

 

To this, Mr Chidambaram said, "A seemingly weak government does not mean we cannot have a strong finance ministry in the government."