Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha on Sunday targeted Finance Minister P Chidambaram for ruining the economy and posed an 18-point questionnaire to him on price rise, economic growth and job fronts.

Puncturing Chidambaram effort to paint a picture of average high economic growth rate during the UPA regime despite global economic crisis, Sinha said the country witnessed high growth during the first four years of UPA I due to measures initiated by the NDA Government.

“You really harvested what was sown by us,” he said. “Is it fact that after 10 years of misrule by the UPA Government economic growth rate has once again slowed down drastically... the GDP growth rate for seven consecutive quarters has been below 5%IJ” he asked.

He said the GDP growth rate has registered a mere 4.7% in October-December quarter of 2013-14. Manufacturing and mining registered a decline of 1.9% and 1.6% during the quarter, he added.

Sinha said these numbers would have been worse but for 7% increase in the personal, community and social services category “reflecting irresponsible Government spending rather than real economic expansion”.

Taking a dig at Chidamabram, who had announced he would not be contesting this elections, Sinha asked: “Is it a fact that the markets have celebrated your announcement of not standing for the elections; that on March 19, 2014 when you made this announcement the BSE sensex shot up by 125 points, that the forex market was also delighted and the rupee has strengthened considerably against the dollar since then.”

On the issue of employment and job creation, quoting a survey by NSSO (National Sample Survey Organisation), Sinha said that over 6 crore job opportunities were created between 1999-2000-2004-05 (NDA Government) as opposed to 1.5 crore between 2004-05 and 2011-12 (UPA Governments).

In his 18-point poser to Chidambaram, Sinha pointed out that as Finance Minister of the UPA-I Government, Chidambaram inherited a robust economy, which grew at the rate of 8 per cent in 2003-04.

“Is it a fact that after 10 years of misrule by the UPA Government economic growth rate has once again slowed down drastically, that the GDP growth rate has registered a mere 4.7 per cent YOY in the October-December quarter of 2013-14, that this is seventh consecutive quarter below the 5 percent mark, that manufacturing and mining registered a decline of 1.9 per cent and 1.6 per cent during the quarter; that the growth rate would have been worse but for a 7 per cent increase in the personal, community and social services category which reflects irresponsible Government spending rather than real economic expansionIJ Sinha asked.

Sinha also asked Chidambaram to admit that for purely electoral considerations he allowed the fiscal deficit to cross all limits of sustainability in 2008-09 through unproductive and irresponsible Government spending from which the budget of the Government of India has not recovered yet.

“Is it a fact that you have drastically reduced plan and productive allocations in the budget and taken recourse to questionable means to maintain fiscal deficit around 5 per cent of the GDP and that you made a mockery of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management ActIJ,” he asked.

Another poser talked about the fact that consumer price inflation averaged around 10 percent per annum between 2008 and 2013. And this was the highest inflation rate in any major economy in the world.