Chidambaram: Narendra Modi has left it to ministers to indulge in bluff

P Chidambaram, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury stage a protest against hike in onion prices outside parliament on Thursday. Pic\PTI

New Delhi: Launching a blistering attack on the government a day after stepping out of jail, Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday alleged that the government is 'clueless' about the economy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left it to his ministers to indulge in 'bluff and bluster'.

The former finance minister 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.

Discussing the economy, Chidambaram said, "Even after seven months into the fiscal year, the BJP government believes the problems faced by the economy are cyclical. The government is wrong. It is wrong because it is clueless," he said. Chidambaram 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.

Asserting that the government 'is in denial' over the state of the economy, he 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.

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," Chidambaram said.

Chidambaram: Does she eat Avocado?

"Does she eat avocado?" quipped Congress leader P Chidambaram, when asked to comment on finance minister Sitharaman's comment that her family didn't eat onion much. He later said that his comment on the finance minister was not "sarcastic".

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