Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram hit out at PM Modi over the economy. (File)
New Delhi:
Congress veteran P Chidambaram has once again hit out at the government over the state of the country’s economy, this time directly hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mr Chidambaram, who was the Finance Minister in the Congress-led UPA government, pulled out a 2013 tweet by PM Modi, when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. The 2013 tweet, which targeted Mr 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!”
Sharing a screenshot of the tweet, Mr Chidambaram, 74, wrote, “I have to say the same thing to the Honourable Prime Minister!
I have to say the same thing to the Honourable Prime Minister! pic.twitter.com/reNmp84mRu
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) September 2, 2020
Congress leaders, including P Chidambaram and Rahul Gandhi, have shredded the government over the contraction of India’s GDP – by 23.9 per cent in the April-June period – accusing it of ignoring repeated warnings from experts on the extent to which the coronavirus pandemic had affected the economy. Mr Chidambaram had said experts had warned the government of just such a scenario and that it could take “many months before the economy turns the corner”.
In an interview to NDTV on Tuesday, he took a swipe at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s “Act of God” comment on the impact of coronavirus on the economy. He said, “Don’t blame God for a man-made disaster.”
He also called the government’s relief package “a joke”.
Mr Chidambaram had also questioned Chief Economic Adviser KV Subramanian’s claim after the shock GDP data that the country had suffered due to the lockdown and would see a better performance in the coming quarters on the back of a “V-shaped recovery” in various sectors.
