P Chidambaram rubbishes FM ‘better growth’ claim

New Delhi: Former finance minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday took a dig at the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)  government over for stating that the present government’s growth rate is better than United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA).

Mr Chidambaram said that it was lower than UPA’s 10 years average and was going downward. Finance minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech this year said that the Indian economy had performed very well since the NDA government took over in May, 2014.

Mr Chidambaram tweeted, “What is the average of 4 years of NDA? It is 7.3 under new methodology and lower than UPA’s 10 year average. What is the direction of NDA’s growth rate? Investments? Savings? Credit growth? All downward.” During his speech in Parliament, Mr Jaitley had said that the difference between the UPA and NDA is that we know how to bite the bullet when decisions have to be taken, alluding to structural reforms like GST.

While the former FM, Mr Chidambaram also said that the World Bank’s former chief economist Kaushik Basu had stated that India’s growth rate was lower than the 30-year average, but Mr Jaitley said the growth rate was better. Mr Jaitley had claimed in the Rajya Sabha that the economy was in the hands of a “terrible doctor” during the 10-year UPA rule, Mr. Chidambaram hit back at the government, saying it had been a “terrible patient, unwilling or incapable of listening to a good doctor.” He also claimed that key sectors, including health, education, agriculture and jobs, had not shown any growth under the BJP rule.