NEW DELHI: A day after being released from Tihar Jail, former union minister P Chidambaram Thursday tore into the government over the state of the economy.
The Congress leader said the place to start is diagnosis. If the diagnosis is wrong, the prescription will be useless, maybe even fatal.
"Even after 7 months into the fiscal year, the BJP government believes that the problems faced by the economy are cyclical. The government is wrong. It is wrong because it is clueless. It is unable to look for the obvious clues because it is stubborn and mulish in defending its catastrophic mistakes like demonetisation, flawed GST, tax terrorism, regulatory overkill, protectionism, and centralized control of decision-making in the PMO," he added.
Listing out the quarterly GDP growth rates in last six months, he said: "The third and fourth quarters of 2019-20 are not likely to be any better. We will be lucky to end the year if growth touches 5 per cent. And 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."
"The 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," he added.
Talking to the media, Chidambaram said his 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.
Expressing concern over situation in Kashmir, the former union minister said: "I am glad to speak to you exactly 106 days after I last spoke to you. 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."
About the court orders, he said: "I am grateful for the clear and comprehensive order yesterday of the Supreme Court. The order will clear the many layers of dust that have unfortunately settled on our understanding of criminal law and the manner in which criminal law has been administered by our Courts."
"I have never commented on cases that are sub judice and I shall continue to adhere to that principle. To many of your possible questions on the case, the answers can be found in the lucid order of the Supreme Court pronounced yesterday. We have total confidence that the Courts will, ultimately, render justice," he said.