GOVT IN DENIAL OVER ECONOMIC SITUATION, SAYS CHIDAMBARAM

Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday said that the NDA government was in denial over the economic situation and dubbed it a “terrible patient”, which makes its own diagnosis. The former finance minister also tweeted: “Arvind Subramanian has been a good doctor since his appointment as the CEA in October 2014. The NDA government has been a terrible patient.” Subramanian is the chief economic adviser.

“The government continues to be in denial. It denies the objective situation in the economy. It denies farm distress. It denies joblessness. It denies the opposition’s arguments. Now, it denies even the diagnosis and the prescription of the doctor it engaged in 2014,” Chidambaram alleged.

He said he regarded the CEA as the doctor-in-residence to check his patient’s health every day and, in case the patient fell ill, to prescribe the course of treatment and the medicines. “A bad patient will not take the medicines, and make his own diagnosis and prescription,” he said.

In tweets, Chidambaram said the budget was an occasion to outline reforms and set a schedule, saying, “Instead, what we got was Elizabethan prose about an ambitious reform agenda under the rubric of an Enhanced Access and Service Excellence (EASE) programme.” He said the Economic Survey emphasised the four Rs (Recognition, Resolution, Recapitalisation and Reforms) and although the first three were done, banking reforms had not been undertaken.

NEWDELHI:Senior The government continues to be in denial. It denies objective situation in the economy. It denies farm distress. It denies joblessness.

P CHIDAMBARAM, Congress leader