Close to home

Indeed, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had a pretty uncomfortable press conference all round. She was bombarded with all kinds of questions related to banking and finance – unsurprisingly – considering she was facing many business journalists, and had just met, along with other north zone chief ministers, with Finance Minister P Chidambaram and some bankers. Unfortunately for Dikshit, Chidambaram had headed off to address another conference, and so the onus of representing the government fell on her. Now, she does hold the finance portfolio in the Delhi government, so she should have been capable of holding up her end. And, she had the Minister of State for Finance, Namo Narain Meena, for support. But Dikshit finally had to tell the media not to ask too many technical questions. “Don’t ask too many questions. I’m not an economist, though I’m the finance minister (of Delhi). Moti-moti gharelu baatein pooch lijiye. Wo main bata sakti hoon (Ask me broad-brush, close-to-home questions. Those I can answer),” she said.