New Delhi: Former finance minister P. Chidambaram, addressing his first press conference after being released from Tihar jail, tore into the NDA government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday over India’s stalling economy, dipping GDP growth and Kashmir.
“As far as the economy is concerned it is incompetence, and when it comes to Kashmir the problem is arrogance,” said Chidambaram.
“Nothing sums up the state of the economy better than the following series of numbers: 8, 7, 6.6, 5.8, 5 and 4.5. Those are the quarterly growth rates of GDP in the last six quarters,” he said.
“We will be lucky to end the year if growth touches 5 per cent. Please remember Dr Arvind Subramanian’s caution that 5 per cent under this government, because of suspect methodology, is not really 5 per cent but less by about 1.5 per cent.”
He castigated the government for being “clueless” and “incompetent” when it came to handling the economy.
“It is stubborn and mulish in defending its catastrophic mistakes like demonetisation, flawed GST, tax terrorism, regulatory overkill, protectionism, and centralised control of decision-making in the PMO,” Chidambaram said, while addressing the media at the Congress headquarters.
“Prime Minister has been unusually silent on the economy. He has left it to his ministers to indulge in bluff and bluster.”
Chidambaram, who was released from jail Wednesday evening 106 days after his arrest in the INX Media case, had been tweeting from prison on the state of the economy. He had said he was “deeply concerned” about the economy and had authorised his family to tweet on his behalf.
I am deeply concerned about the economy.
The poor are the worst affected. Lower incomes, fewer jobs, less trade and lower investment affect the poor and the middle class. Where is the plan to get the country out of this decline and gloom?
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) September 11, 2019
“Kashmir is an ill-thought-out, ill-founded and ill-intentioned design of policy to suppress basic freedoms. In the economy, it is simply ignorance, incompetence.”
The senior Congress leader was back in Parliament Thursday and was seen protesting along with other party MPs on the onion price hike in Rajya Sabha.
He also took a jibe at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. “The finance minister said yesterday that she doesn’t eat onions, so what does she eat? Does she eat avocado?”
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‘BJP pushing people into poverty’
Flagging a decline in rural consumption, rural wages, production cost for farmers and FMCG, Chidambaram highlighted how the problem of the economy is “structural”.
“There is less demand among the people because they have less money and less appetite to consume due to uncertainty and fear,” he said.
“Unless demand increases, there will not be increased production/output or increased investment. PLF (Plant Load Factor) of all thermal plants is 48 per cent. If one half of installed electricity capacity is shut down, there can be no greater disaster,” he said.
“The UPA lifted 140 million people out of poverty between 2004 and 2014. The NDA has, since 2016, pushed millions of people below the poverty line,” he added.
Mocking the government for saying that economic problem was “cyclical”, Chidambaram said he was thankful to god that the BJP hadn’t called it “seasonal”.
Chidambaram added that the government had banished those who “knew about the economy” such as former RBI governors Raghuram Rajan, Urjit Patel, former NITI Aayog chairman Arvind Panagariya and former chief economic adviser to the government Arvind Subramanian.
‘Always strong in spirit’
Chidambaram refrained from talking about his case as he has been barred by the Supreme Court which made it a condition while granting him bail yesterday. He did, however, say that his stay in jail had “strengthened his neck, back and spine”.
“I was always strong in spirit, I’m now stronger I think,” said Chidambaram. “But I’ve also become stronger in body. I’ll give you one hint — sleeping on a wooden board without a pillow strengthens your neck and spine and back.”
Congress’ top leadership threw its weight behind Chidambaram, with former party chief Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visiting him last week and calling his incarceration “vengeful and vindictive”. Interim party chief Sonia Gandhi too met him in jail just soon after he was arrested.
At the press meet, Chidambaram said the people will decide who practices vendetta politics. Quoting a saying in Tamil, he added, “Those who do wrong and evil to you, do good to them. All I can say is we will not practice vendetta politics.”
Jammu and Kashmir, SPG and JNU
Chidambaram began his press conference by talking about Kashmir and freedom.
“As I stepped out and breathed the air of freedom at 8 pm last night, my first thought and prayers were for the 75 lakh people of the Kashmir Valley who have been denied their basic freedoms since August 4, 2019,” he said.
“I am particularly concerned about the political leaders who have been detained without charges. Freedom is indivisible: If we must preserve our freedom, we must fight for their freedom,” Chidambaram added.
The Congress leader said that he intended to visit Jammu and Kashmir if the government would allow him.
On JNU students protesting against the fee hike, Chidambaram said his sympathies lie completely with them.
“In a welfare state, higher education should be completely free, but since we haven’t reached that stage yet, the fees should be reasonable,” he said. “I fully support the students of JNU and IIMC who are protesting against this fee hike.”
On the passing of a controversial bill to strip the Gandhi family of its Special Protection Group cover, Chidambaram it is said a “cross” they will have to bear.
“If the government believes they (the Gandhis) don’t require SPG protection, then that is a cross the government has to bear. As for the Gandhis, they are grateful and have said fine if that’s your decision, then so be it.”
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