Visibly angry and unusually aggressive, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram today tore into the Narendra Modi government, charging it with pushing hundreds of thousands of people below the poverty line because of its wrong economic decisions, and asked “what the heck have you been doing in the last four years” to remedy the situation.
His voice betraying emotion, unusual for Chidambaram, who is known to be firm and composed in his speeches, the Congress leader said, in an obvious reference to the arrest of his son Karti Chidambaram by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the INX Media case, that some thought that he would not stand to speak at the AICC Plenary.
The former union minister, who presented the Economic Resolution at the Congress’ plenary session, began his speech by saying, “Some thought that I would not stand here to speak to you and present the economic resolution, but I stand before you as I draw courage and strength from each of you who have come from all parts of India.”
“There is steel in me. And it has been instilled in me from 45 years of association with the Congress Party,” said Chidambaram.
In a fierce attack on Modi, he said that the present government has in the last four years not addressed the challenges in the fields of health, agriculture, education and employment. “What the heck have you been doing in the last four years? This is a question that the Prime Minister must answer,” he said.
In an apparent counter-attack on Modi on the issue of corruption, with son Karti behind bars in the INX Media case and questions being raised about the former finance minister’s own role in the granting of FIPB clearance to the media organisation, Chidambaram made the charge that every rally of the Prime Minister has been financed by nothing but black money.
“They said they would put an end to black money, to corruption. Every rally of the PM has been financed by nothing but black money,” he said.
Chidambaram termed demonetisation a “big lie”, and the manner in which Goods and Services Tax has been rolled out “an utterly foolish move”. Taking a dig at Modi over the Reserve Bank of India saying that it is still counting the old currency notes which have been come back to it following demonetisation, the Congress leader said the RBI officials should go to the Hundi collectors at Tirupati. “They count money faster than you,” he said.
With regard to Modi’s recent announcements on MSP for farmers, Chidambaram asked why the PM chose a Saturday, when Parliament was not sitting, to speak on the issue. “Come to Parliament tomorrow and tell us where you will get the money for it,” a combative Chidambaram said.
Noting that the biggest achievement of the Manmohan Singh government was that 14 crore people were lifted out of poverty, the leader charged the BJP government with pushing people into poverty. “I charged the BJP government…you have pushed hundreds of thousands of people into poverty because of demonetisation, GST, because of agrarian crisis.”