FM faces flak from friends & foes

NEW DELHI: Finance minister P Chidambaram had to face across-the-board fire for ‘goofing up’ on the prices front. It wasn’t just the UPA government’s political opponents, but even friendly parties such as the RJD that criticised him for ‘giving short shrift’ to the aam aadmi and growth impulses in the general budget.

With even the RJD, which has so far been steadfast in its loyalty towards the Congress and its president Sonia Gandhi, training its guns on the government’s managers for their failure to steer the country’s economy onto the right trajectory, things don’t seem to be going well for the Congress-led coalition.

As the discussion on the budget got underway in the Lok Sabha on Monday, former union minister Devendra Prasad Yadav let loose a barrage against Mr Chidambaram for ignoring the interests of the poor and the disadvantaged.

“The finance minister, while presenting the budget, earmarked funds for four institutes engaged in propagating Gandhian studies, but has failed to follow the Mahatma’s teachings. The test of the efficacy of a government programme and policy was its impact on the last man in the society. On that count, Mr Chidambaram has failed miserably,’’ the RJD leader asserted.

Blaming the Centre for its ‘flop-show’ on the prices front, Mr Yadav attacked its procurement policy. ``The government is simply not interested in procurement of grain. The centre should take steps to rein in prices by banning futures trading and taking strong action against hoarders.

Rather than doing this, the prime minister has passed the buck on the states. This is unheard of,’’ he said. He also criticised the government’s finance managers for allowing private players a free hand in lifting food stock before the Food Corporation of India.

The RJD leader also accused the finance minister of paying lip-service to the upliftment of the unorganised sector. ``There are 37 crore workers falling under this sector, but the government has only come out with a figure of five crore. What has the government done for implementing the Abhijit Sen committee report on the unorganised sector? Why isn’t the finance minister mustering the courage to introduce the bill on this sector?’’

The budget was subjected to an intense and incisive scrutiny by former union minister Suresh Prabhu (Shiv Sena). Terming Mr Chidambaram’s blueprint for the economy in the coming financial year as a timid budget, he said that it was bereft of any ideas for the resolution of problem areas such as power, inflation and agriculture.

Paying tributes to the finance minister for his ‘legal skills’, and hailing him as the `best lawyer’ in the country, Mr Prabhu, however, said that his stewardship of the economy had left a lot to be desired.

Not only had the share of agriculture in the GDP gone down, but so had public investment, the Shiv Sena MP argued. ``The claim that agriculture will grow at 4% has been disputed by the Planning Commission members themselves,’’ he said, alluding to Mr Abhijit Sen’s assertions in this regard.

The former union minister also contested the methodology adopted by the finance minister to recharge the agricultural sector. There could be no solution to the decline in agriculture without a plan for soil, land and water regeneration. Erosion in soil quality, Mr Prabhu contended, was a critical factor behind the gloom in the rural sector. ``I don’t see the allocations to address this issue,’’ he said.