“Through 2015 and 2016 I have found that there is too much fear in this country. Institutions fear authority, individuals fear retribution, Dalits live in fear, minorities live in fear, student activists live in fear.”
“Those who need to be in the forefront, in the need to be fearless, are those in the Opposition because that will ensure a democracy,” said former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram at the launch of his book Fearless in Opposition .
The book launch at Teen Murti Bhawan on Friday was followed by a panel discussion that had Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, General Secretary of the CPI(M) Sitaram Yechury, and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal join the author.
‘Need opposition unity’
The panellists said that India needed “opposition unity” to counter the Centre and that the Opposition should be guided by its own agenda instead of reacting to the government’s agenda.
On why the opposition, including the Congress, and the government have had a total breakdown in conversation, Mr. Chidambaram said that on the first day after coming to power, the NDA announced that they wanted to create a “Congress Mukt Bharat” and since then the relationship had soured.
Demonetisation discussed
On demonetisation, which is extensively covered in the book, Mr. Kumar slammed the initiative — a departure from his initial stance of supporting the move.
The Bihar Chief Minister said that the government had shifted goal posts by diverting the attention away from “bringing back black money” to “developing a cash-less economy”.
