In a first press conference after his release from the Tihar jail, former finance minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday ripped into the government on the state of the economy and said the issue lies in the government's assumption that problems faced by the economy are cyclical. "Prime Minister 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."
"The government is making mistakes. It is wrong. Let me repeat, the government is wrong and they are wrong because they are clueless..it is stubborn and mulish in defending catastrophic mistakes like demonetisation, flawed GST, tax terrorism," he said.
Chidambaram 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."
Chidambaram also took a dig at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who had said in Parliament on Wednesday that she didn’t consume much onion, saying the government should have planned better and there was no use of exporting the essential kitchen staple now. “Look at the response of the FM… She says 'I don’t eat onions'... She calls you onion-eating people,” he said.
He further said that his record as Minister and his conscience are absolutely clear as officers who have worked with him, business persons who have interacted with him and journalists who have observed him know that very well.
"Concerned" about the political leaders who have been detained without charges, Chidambaram said freedom is indivisible and if we must preserve our freedom, "we must fight for their freedom."
Congress leader P Chidambaram, who has been released from Tihar Jail on bail after 106 days in custody in the INX Media money-laundering case, was present in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. Chidambaram, who walked out of jail on Wednesday night, joined other Congress MPs voicing their protest against the steep hike in onion prices and said he was happy to be back.
"The government cannot suppress my voice in Parliament," the Rajya Sabha MP told reporters in Parliament complex before the proceedings of the Upper House.
The Supreme Court granted him bail in the INX Media case, saying the claims by the Enforcement Directorate that he could tamper with evidence cannot be accepted on face value as he was neither in political power nor holds any post in the government.
The apex court has restrained the 74-year-old leader from either giving media interviews or any public comment in connection with the case regarding him or other co-accused.
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