P Chidambaram leaving a troubled legacy for his successor: BJP's Arun Jaitley on interim budget

New Delhi: The BJP's Arun Jaitley today came down heavily on P Chidambaram for masking the real concerns of the Indian economy in his final budget, and argued that the Finance Minister was leaving behind "a troubled legacy" for his successor.

"Will Mr Chidambaram seriously introspect on the legacy he would leave behind for the next Finance Minister? The Finance Minister will be a relieved man today. His successor will be in trouble,'' the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said, hours after the Finance Minister had presented the interim budget. (Read the blog) 

The BJP leader accused the Finance Minister of failing to address the real issues confronting the Indian economy. "Even though the Vote-on-Account is only for a period of four months, there are serious concerns on the growth rate, real fiscal deficit, inflation, investment and the slowdown in manufacturing sector. The stability of the Rupee is a matter of concern particularly because the Rupee itself has reached unacceptable levels," Mr Jaitley said in his latest blog post.

He charged the UPA of frittering away the gains bequeathed by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 2004. "Mr Chidambaram inherited an 8.5 % GDP growth rate. He exits on a 4.5 percent GDP growth. The last three years of the UPA witnessed a sharp fall in the growth rate from a near 9 % to less than 5 %," Mr Jaitley observed.

The BJP leader criticized the Finance Minister for taking recourse to financial jugglery to peg the fiscal deficit at 4.6% of the GDP. "He had set a laxman-rekha for himself last year. The fiscal deficit had to be brought down to 4.8 percent. He now claims to have brought it down to 4.6 percent. He achieves this spectacular feat not by bringing in revenue buoyancy, or by reviving the investment cycle, but by cutting down expenditure, particularly the capital expenditure," Mr Jaitley pointed out.