Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday favoured downsizing of the Planning Commission amid reports that the Narendra Modi Government is likely to dismantle or at least drastically reduce the over-arching role of the plan body.
“My personal view is that the Planning Commission should be a much more limited body tasked with drawing up prospective plans. At the moment it is too big, flabby and unwieldy,” Chidambaram said at the AICC briefing.There have been reports that the Modi Government views that the Planning Commission is only adding to red tape and is essentially a creature of the old ‘licence Raj’ and hence serves no purpose in liberalised economy. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, too, had called for a review of the planning body’s role in an increasingly open economy.
Earlier, conceding that inflation was “one of the reasons” for Congress’ debacle in the lok Sabha polls, Chidambaram said that the new dispensation will also soon learn that not all factors are under control of any Government.
“I am not competent to comment on why Congress lost the elections. I assume that inflation was one of the reasons. That is a very logical conclusion... Inflation certainly must have been one of reasons, why people voted against us,” Chidambaram said. The former finance minister wished that the new Government is able to check inflation but felt it was a difficult task.
Amid concerns that growing incidences of violence in Iraq could escalate fuel prices thereby leading to hike in prices of other commodities, Chidmabaram said if fuel prices remain high, they will pose a problem to the new Government.When asked how does he rated Arun Jaitley as a Finance Minister, Chidambaram said with a smile “I am not a rating agency”. “I do not give unsolicited advice,” he said.
Rebutting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his remarks about the country’s financial health during UPA, Chidambaram posed a number of questions whether the PM referred to the cash balance and foreign exchange reserves. Giving figures on all these counts, Chidambaram accused the BJP and NDA of remaining in “campaign mode”.
Citing figures, Chidambaram claimed that the UPA was able to moderate inflation at the retail level from 13.6 per cent to 7.5 per cent. Chidambaram said that the Congress-led UPA Government has left a better cash balance, while the NDA had left behind an “empty treasury”.To a question on as to how Congress will act in Parliament in the Budget session, Chidambaram said, “We will play the role of a resolute, determined and responsible Opposition...Our party will be a responsible and formidable Opposition.” Asked about leader of Opposition issue in lok Sabha, he said that the position of loP rightfully belongs to the largest political formation in the Opposition camp, which is the Congress party in the lower House.
On e-Aadhaar in the wake of Modi Government scrapping the Cabinet Committee Unique Identification Authority, Chidambaram said that under the law today the Registrar General of India is in the process of preparing two registers- National Population Register and National Citizen Register.
To questions on Modi Government’s decision to wind up GoMs, he said that it will be “unfair” to say that all GoMs did not work.