P Chidambaram had a career as a successful lawyer before entering politics. He was inducted into the Union Council of Ministers in 1985 as a Deputy Minister under Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. At that time, he was part of a young and well-educated new generation of politicians. During his tenure, his main action was to control the price of tea, though he was criticized by Sri Lanka for allegedly destroying their tea trade through price fixing in India using state power.