Chidambaram turns 'reporter', quizzes Jaswant on TV

The Bharatiya Janata party’s defeat in the Karnataka assembly polls turned Finance Minister P Chidambaram into a 'TV reporter' on Wednesday.

The senior Congress leader took the microphone from a TV reporter and put in front of senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh as he emerged from Parliament.

"Don't you credit Congress with the victory," he asked Singh.

In fact, the finance minister was being asked questions by reporters about the Karnataka polls when he saw Singh coming out.

Promptly, he took the microphone of the TV reporter and posed the question to Jaswant, who was his predecessor in the finance ministry, before the Congress came to power at the Centre in May 2004.

"He is a gentleman", Chidambaram said about Singh while returning the microphone to the reporter.

"It is a message to all political parties. The people watch very closely. Whoever forms the government must deliver," the finance minister said, reacting to a question on whether the Karnataka assembly poll result is a larger message to the United Progressive Alliance government, as the people of Karnataka had voted out the BJP on the issue of corruption.

Agreeing with Chidambaram, Singh said people vote for governance and "if you stop governance, people will vote you out”.