.........CHENNAI: Barely a month after he was at the centre of a row within the Tamil Nadu Youth Congress, after leaders of the junior wing accused him of trying to create a rift within the organisation, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s son and All India Congress Committee member Karti P Chidambaram seems to be courting controversy again, with his comments on Wednesday that the Congress lacked inner party democracy.


Speaking during a panel discussion organised by Teh­elka on Tuesday night, he stressed on the need for the party to function democratically. “Democratisation in political parties is a must. It has been done at the Youth Congress level but is lacking at the parent party level,” the junior Chidambaram said.

Touching upon a few issues during the discussion, Karti vociferously defended liberalisation and said blaming liberalisation for all ills is a mistake. “Liberalisation has benefited people at the lower end. It has brought in a lot of benefits at the technology level,” he said. Quoting an example, he said, “Earlier, it was quite difficult to own a telephone but now you can buy it in every nook and corner.”

Rights activist Dr Binayak Sen threw light on high prevalence of malnutrition among adults and children, while Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal outlined the magazine’s evolution since the government’s witch hunt following its expose on corruption in defence deals.