Former Finance Minister of India and Congress stalwart, P Chidambaram, on Wednesday pulled out an old tweet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take a sharp swipe at the BJP-led union government over the countries debilitating economy. The seasoned politician earlier took on incumbent Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for her “act of God” comment a day after a 24% drop in the GDP signaled India’s worst economic contraction on record.
Chidambaram shared a screenshot of PM Modi’s post from 2013 when the latter was the chief minister of Gujarat and the BJP’s face for 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The old tweet, which targeted Chidambaram, read, “Economy is in trouble, youth want jobs. Devote more time to economics not petty politics. Chidambaram ji, please focus on the job at hand!” Chidambaram was the Finance Minister in the Congress-led UPA government.
With the screenshot, Chidambaram quipped saying, “I have to say the same thing to the Honourable Prime Minister!”
On Tuesday, the 74-year-old Congress leader criticised Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for blaming the coronavirus for the current economic situation of the country. “In fact, you should thank god. God has blessed the farmers of the country. The pandemic is a natural disaster. But you are compounding the pandemic, a natural disaster, with a man-made disaster.” Chidambaram said.
Sitharaman earlier had put the blame on the pandemic in response to the states’ demand for compensation due to GST losses. “This year we are facing an extraordinary situation. We are facing an act of God where we may even see a contraction,” she said.
Questioning Chief Economic Adviser KV Subramanian’s claim that the economy would see a better performance in the coming quarters on the back of a V-shaped recovery, Chidambaram said, “I don’t know if anyone takes the Chief Economic Adviser seriously. When is the last time he had a conversation with the Prime Minister? He has been predicting V-shaped recovery for months. Then he saw green shoots when the Finance Minister said it. Where are the green shoots?”
Taking a swipe at Sitharaman over the remarks, Chidambaram said, “If the pandemic is an ‘Act of God’, how do we describe the mismanagement of the economy during 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20. Before the pandemic struck India?” “Will the FM as the Messenger of God please answer?” the former finance minister asked. Chidambaram also slammed the Centre for asking states to borrow more to make up for revenue losses due to pending GST dues.
Chidamabaram said the data point on which Subramanian relied had been refuted by the Reserve Bank of India.
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