Chidambaram calls Modi government ‘incompetent’

Slamming the government’s economic measures like demonetisation and Goods and Service Tax in its four years and two months of existence, he said, “we are now worried what will happen in the next eight months.”

Reeling out statistics at a seminar titled ‘Challenges Facing India’ here, also attended by Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and D Raja, Chidambaram alleged that there has been a dip in the country’s growth rate over the years due to lesser investment and lower lending by banks. 

He said countries bigger in terms of GDP size like the US and China were doing well even as India was suffering from slow growth and issues like unemployment, spurred by steps like demonetisation.

The note ban, for instance, had severely impacted the MSME sector, he said and referred to recent reports that about 50,000 such units had closed down in Tamil Nadu post the ban on then high value notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500. This was the case in many other Indian cities, he added.

Further, the Indian Rupee was becoming weaker against the US Dollar, he said, adding that if this continued, it would lead to increase in import costs, price rise and hike in interest rate, among others.

“In terms of economic management, this (BJP-led NDA) is an incompetent government,” he charged. If the present economic condition continues, “The government will lose its self-confidence and start going haywire,” the former Union Minister warned. 

He added that the solution for the economic problems lay in the hands of the people and they should vote the BJP government out in next year’s elections. Yechury, CPM general secretary, said the concept of Indian nationhood was now being ‘challenged.’ Meanwhile, DMK MP Tiruchy Siva alleged that the Centre was making attempts to snatch away various rights of the states.