HYDERABAD: It was indeed a lively interaction with economist-turned-politician, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram bringing out the shortcomings in certain areas of public interest.

Mr. Chidambaram turned the venue, the Hyderabad International Convention Centre hosting Satyam Computers' Leadership Roundtable, into a sort of classroom in explaining about their functioning. His responses to queries by DGP Swaranjit Sen, were, in fact, thought provoking.

Mr. Sen asked why security and policing arrangements appear rather pedestrian when building world-class facilities and why was security not considered in initial stages of development of the project on the lines of the West. "We have different wings of the Police Department dealing different issues. Unfortunately, we are trying to make the police a jack-of-all-trades. How can this work," Mr. Chidambaram said.

Voting issue

To a query, he lamented that many people from higher echelons of society do not cast their votes. "When 20 to 30 per cent of the sections concerned doesn't vote, how do you expect efficient people to get elected?" he asked.

In this context, he favoured the political parties to reinvent themselves.

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