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Finance Minister P Chidambaram bade farewell on Thursday at the central secretariat’s North Block, his office in the finance ministry for 22 months.
After briefly chairing his final meeting with financial advisors of various ministries, he left for Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu to be present at the counting of votes on Friday. Son Karti is the ruling party's candidate from here, with Chidambaram choosing not to contest after all these years from there.
The farewell was not the emotional one predecessor Pranab Mukherjee had got when he moved to Rashtrapati Bhawan in 2012. A 15-minute meeting with officers, without any speech, marked his exit in the morning. Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram thanked him on behalf of all the officers of the rank of joint secretary and above present there. There was a bouquet from the officers.
News agencies quoted Chidambaram as saying, “Since 1966, I have been working for 16 hours a day and I will continue to work so. You will see me more in public life.”
This was Chidambaram’s third stint in the ministry. Even after the last phase of polling, he had met heads of insurance companies, bank chiefs and financial sector regulators.
Chidambaram had taken Cabinet approval for withdrawing a peace offer to Vodafone after the British telecom company said it wanted to go for international arbitration.
Chidambaram cleared only urgent files in the last few weeks, asking officials not to refer to him any matters that didn't need his approval or could wait for the next government.
Few weeks ago he had said that he would keep a firm hand on the wheel until the last day and hoped to hand over the wheel to another firm hand, and he actually did that.
