PM has left it to his Ministers to indulge in bluff and bluster, says Cong leader
A day after stepping out of jail, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday alleged the Centre is “clueless” about the state of economy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left it to his Ministers to indulge in “bluff and bluster”.
Slamming the Government’s economic policy, the senior Congress leader said nothing sums up the state of the economy better than the series of numbers: 8, 7, 6.6, 5.8, 5 and 4.5, a reference to quarterly growth rates of the GDP in the last six quarters.
Chidambaram addressed a Press Conference where he alleged the Government is unable to look for the obvious clues because it is “stubborn and mulish” in defending its “catastrophic mistakes” such as demonetisation, flawed GST, tax terrorism, regulatory overkill, protectionism, and centralised control of decision-making in the Prime Minister’s Office.
He began his Press conference with a reference to Kashmir. Chidambaram said his first thoughts upon his release from jail were with the Kashmiri people who “have been denied their basic freedoms since August 4, 2019”.
He refused to speak on the case pending against him and focused mostly on the economy in his Press conference. He only said the “clear and comprehensive” Supreme Court order, granting him bail in a money laundering case connected to INX Media will clear the “many layers of dust” settled on the understanding of criminal law and the manner in which criminal law has been administered by the courts. “I am happy to be back. The Government cannot suppress my voice in Parliament,” he said.
“In the last 106 days, I was strong in spirit and I have become stronger because...My record as Minister and my conscience are absolutely clear. Officers who have worked with me, business persons who have interacted with me and journalists who have observed me know that very well. My family trusts in God. We have total confidence that the courts will, ultimately, render justice,” Chidambaram said.
Asked if parallels can be drawn between the Government’s assurances on issues in Kashmir and the economy, Chidambaram answered in the negative, saying as far as economy is concerned “the reason is incompetence, while in Kashmir, it is the Government’s arrogance”. He added in a lighter vein that sleeping on a wooden board, without a pillow strengthens the neck, spine and back.
“Even after seven months into the fiscal year, the BJP Government believes the problems faced by the economy are cyclical,” said Chidambaram.
“The Government is wrong. It is wrong because it is clueless,” said the Rajya Sabha member who attended the upper house proceedings on Thursday hours after his release on bail.
Chidambaram who has served both as Home and Finance Minister on different occasion in the Manmohan Singh Government, alleged that Modi has been “unusually silent” on the economy. “He has left it to his Ministers to indulge in bluff and bluster. The net result, as The Economist put it, is that the Government has turned out to be an ‘incompetent manager’ of the economy,” he said.
Taking a swipe at the Government, Chidambaram said it is calling the present slowdown “cyclical”; thank god it has not called it seasonal, he added. “It is ‘structural’ and the Government has no solutions or reforms that would address the structural problems,” he said.
Asserting that the Government “is in denial” over the state of the economy, Chidambaram pointed out that rural consumption is down according to the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) as are rural wages and producer prices, especially for the farmers.
There is less demand among the people because they have less money and less appetite to consume due to uncertainty and fear, Chidambaram claimed. According to the Congress leader, the previous UPA dispensation lifted 14 crore people out of poverty between 2004-2014, while the NDA had pushed millions of people below the poverty line since 2016.
“The economy can be brought out of the slowdown, but this Government is incapable of doing that. I believe the Congress and some other parties are better equipped to pull the economy out of the slowdown and push economic growth, but we have to wait for better times,” the former Finance Minister said.
When asked by reporters in Parliament premises to comment on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s comment that her family didn’t eat onion much, Chidambaram quipped “Does she eat avocado?”.Later he said that his comments on the Finance Minister was not “sarcastic”.”I was not sarcastic, I was quoting her. They should have planned in advance, what is the point of importing (onion) now, when will they arrive. But if the Finance Minister says I don’t eat onions, that shows the mindset of this Government,” he said.
“I thought the Finance Minister said in Parliament yesterday that she didn’t eat onion and she is not bothered. What does she eat? Avocado? She doesn’t eat onions,” he said while protesting with party MP colleagues on the onion issue in Parliament complex.
On queries by mediapersons about industrialist Rahul Bajaj’s claim that people were scared to criticise the Government, Chidambaram said the businessman is tall enough to make those remarks at a meeting but there is “complete fear everywhere”. “Every institution is gripped by fear and the media is no exception... Please shed fear, please speak truth to power,” he said.