BJP making mistake of projecting Narendra Modi larger than party: Finance Minister P Chidambaram

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister P Chidambaram said BJP is making a mistake by projecting Narendra Modi larger than the party and it would realise this in the near future.

"The BJP has projected a person larger than the party. They would realise their mistake. If not now, in the near future. You cannot project a person who is larger than the party in a parliamentary democracy," he told a news channel.

"This is not a presidential form of government. It appears to me that all the BJP leaders have reconciled to the fact that country is going to elect the president and all of them will be Secretary to the President. We don't have that form of government...."

Chidambaram said Modi is propagating the ideology of RSS, which in his opinion was more dangerous than that of BJP.

"The RSS is fully behind this projection. So what are being propagated by Modi today, this not BJP's ideology, but RSS's ideology...We consider RSS ideology as a dangerous ideology. It is worse than the BJP ideology," the Finance Minister said.

While BJP is forced to moderate its policies because of pressure of electoral politics, RSS does not enter the election fray and is not accountable to anyone, he said.

"RSS is a quasi secret organisation. So RSS ideology is being projected by the chosen one -- Modi," he said.

Chidambaram mocked at Modi's howlers in the recent times, saying in pursuit of power the Gujarat Chief Minister says whatever comes to his mind.

"Look at the howlers he has said. Look at the kind of things he has said. Starting with his famous statement that he rescued 15,000 Gujaratis in Uttarakhand, down to the last statement that Pandit Jawharlal Nehru did not attend Sardar Patel's funeral. That Chandragupta belonged to the Gupta dynasty and Alexander crossed the Ganga," he said.

The Finance Minister hoped the debate will turn from being personality driven to one between the Congress and the BJP.