PC as new troubleshooter

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram's presence at the chief ministers conference on internal security surprised many. Pranab Mukherjee was the only exception of being present at functions not relating directly to the portfolio he held, showing that he was Number 2. Although Defence Minister A K Antony has now been officially designated as No 2, Chidambaram's presence raised eyebrows. Clearly, the political statement is that after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram is the most important leader in the UPA Government. Chidambaram has now effectively stepped into the shoes of Pranab Mukherjee as the new UPA troubleshooter. True to his reputation, it was Chidambaram, and not Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, who spoke up for the government, in the face of concerted criticism mounted by the Opposition. Even MoS in Home Mullampally Ramachandran could not rise to the occasion to defend the government. Chidambaram had to stand in for the government. It was during his tenure in Home Ministry that Chidambaram set up Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) in IB, created National Investigating Agency (NIA) and mooted National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC). He came out in defence of the same and countered the Opposition politically for stalling the NCTC for no good reason. Despite obliging the Opposition and shifting it out of the IB and placing it under the Home Ministry, the government failed to impress on it.