Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on Congress heavyweight P Chidambaram in her reply to the Opposition on the Union Budget. She called the former finance minister a “Harvard and Oxford graduate” and accused him of adopting “reckless policies” and failing to contain inflation. “The UPA government instigated stimulus packages to stimulate the economy but unfortunately our Harvard and Oxford graduate leaders did not know when and how to withdraw the stimulus packages, which led to double-digit inflation, high fiscal deficit and debt between 2009 and 2013 and crowding out private investment,” Sitharaman said in the Indian parliament.
She said India had been experiencing double-digit inflation when the UPA was in power and also blamed the Congress government for mismanaging the economy after the 2008 financial crisis, which was far less complicated than COVID-19.
“We saw high double-digit inflation during the UPA era due to reckless policies,” Sitharaman said.
The finance minister said inflation in the country has been better controlled by the NDA government. “During the UPA government, inflation in the country was higher than the global average,” she said.
“Of the total 28 months between January 2010 and 2014, inflation was above 9 per cent in 22 months,” Sitharaman added.
She further stated that Congress’ “inflation record is a ‘record’ and it will be impossible to break.”
She alleged that the former Reserve Bank of India governor was under pressure from the UPA government when Chidambaram was in charge of the finance ministry.
“The finance ministry used to pressure the Reserve Bank of India to cut interest rates and make the outlook for economic recovery look brighter, supporting sentiment for economic recovery,” Sitraman said, citing a book by Dhubri Subbarao, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
She said the government must ask the Reserve Bank of India for appropriate action as the economy is in such a bad state that sentiments may be affected.
The UPA government interfered in the RBI’s affairs, exerted pressure through various means and even fought back when the central bank tried to make its case, former governor D Subbarao has revealed in his book.
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