Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman takes "Harvard and Oxford" dig at Chidambaram

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her reply to the opposition on the Union Budget on Tuesday took a dig at senior Congress MP P Chidambaram. She referred to the former minister of finance as “Harvrad and Oxford educated” and accused him of failing to control inflation by adopting “reckless policies”.

“The UPA govt took stimulus measures to boost the economy but I am sorry to say...Harvard & Oxford educated leaders did not know when and how to withdraw the stimulus leading to high double-digit inflation between 2009 and 13, high fiscal deficiet & debt -- crowding out private investment," Sitharaman said in Lok Sabha.

She said that India had a double-digit inflation when UPA was at the Centre. She also accused the Congress government of having failed to manage the economy post the 2008 financial crisis, which was much less complex to that of Covid-19.



"We saw double-digit high-level inflation during the UPA era because of reckless policies," Sitharaman said.

The finance minister said that domestic inflation was better managed by the NDA government. "Domestic inflation used to be higher than the global average during UPA's time," she said.

"Between January 2010 and 2014...of the total 28 months, 22 months the inflation was above 9 per cent," Sitharaman added.

She then said that the Congress’ “inflation record is a 'record'-- impossible to defeat".

She alleged that the ex-RBI governor faced pressure from the UPA government with Chidambaram handling the ministry of finance.


"The finance ministry used to pressurise the RBI to soften interest rates and present a rosier picture of growth to shore up sentiments," Sithraman said while quoting from ex-RBI governor Duvvuri Subbarao's book.

She said that the economy was in such a bad state that the government had to call the RBI to manage properly as sentiment could be affected.

The UPA regime interfered with the affairs of the RBI, used various methods to exert pressure and even struck back when the central bank tried to assert itself, former governor D Subbarao revealed in his book.