Chidambaram blames government for Parliament disruptions

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday targeted the Modi government for its fiscal management and failure to run Parliament smoothly.

A day after the Prime Minister blamed the principal opposition party for frequent disruptions in Parliament, the Congress fielded former finance minister P Chidambaram, who said the Centre had committed serious mistakes in fiscal management.

At the beginning of 2015, the government had confidently predicted that the economy will grow at 8.1-8.5% in 2015-16, Chidambaram said.

“Many promises of the government – more jobs, greater investment and quicker infrastructure development – were premised on a high growth of GDP. I am afraid none of the promises has materialised. On the contrary, 2015 has ended on a sombre and subdued note,” he said.

Chidambaram also countered Modi’s criticism of Congress for alleged obstructionism. “Congress, and other parties, are in the opposition. The role of the Opposition in a parliamentary democracy is well articulated in the old maxim ‘to oppose, expose and depose’.

Our opposition to the government’s wrong policies or poorlydrafted laws or acts of misconduct or misuse of government agencies can’t be termed obstructionism,” he said.

The senior Congress leader said that GDP growth in 2015-16 will not be higher than 7-7.3%, which will be the same or lower than in the previous financial year.