Pranab Mukherjee, Chidambaram spat casts shadow on cabinet reshuffle plan

The growing chasm between finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and home minister P Chidambaram ahead of the cabinet reshuffle this week has left the Congress top brass jittery.

At loggerheads for sometime now, the leaders had an ugly spat at a recent cabinet meeting.

Trouble started when Chidambaram made a remark at a time the finance minister was presenting the decision of the empowered group of ministers (eGoM) on raising the issue price of wheat and rice for people above the poverty line (APL), highly-placed sources in the government told DNA.

It was proposed that the issue price of wheat be raised by Rs2.35 per kg and rice by Rs3.55 per kg for the APL category.

Chidambaram, who held the finance portfolio earlier, said people were already suffering due to high food inflation and looking for relief.   

Thus, it would be “immoral” to raise the issue price at this juncture.

Mukherjee, sources said, lost his cool on hearing the word “immoral’’. “What is immoral about it? How can you say it is immoral ?” he shot back at Chidambaram.

The vehemence of his reaction left everybody, including prime minister Manmohan Singh, stunned. Chidambaram apologised immediately and withdrew his remarks. However, he maintained a stony silence through the remainder of the meeting.

There has been a trust deficit between the ministers for sometime. It took a turn for the worse when Mukherjee was asked by the party high command to handle the Telangana issue.

There is a feeling in the Congress that Chidamaram had messed it up and also that he failed to comprehend the complexities of the Maoist problem.

Chidamabaram, on his part, has been openly expressing doubts over the way food prices are being handled by the finance ministry.

There are many who feel that the 2G spectrum scam and Nira Radia tapes have a lot to do with differences at the top.

Top party sources said the prime minister will need to take serious note of the differences before it reshuffles ministers.