Chidambaram, Sinha in war of words over economic data

New Delhi, May 1 (IANS) War of words escalated Thursday between Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and former finance minister and BJP leader Yashwant Sinha over economic data. While Sinha accused Chidambaram of spreading lies and fooling the country over fiscal deficit data, the finance minister called him "mischievious" and ignorant.

Addressing a press conference at Congress party national headquarters here, Chidambaram released some data and claimed that economic performance during the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was far better than the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government, during which Sinha was a finance minister.

"I thought Shri Sinha would be happy to remain a distant memory for the people of India. However, since he seems determined to remain relevant in his party, I am obliged to recall his record during the four years when he was finance minister," Chidambaram said.

"I may point out that 2000-2001 and 2002-2003 were the worst years since liberalisation in terms of growth and Prime Minister Vajpayee was forced to replace the finance minister," he added.

In an interview to a newspaper published Thursday, Sinha said Chidambaram is "trying to fool the country by saying the fiscal deficit has come down to 4.6 percent. It is a fraud."

"He (Chidambaram) savagely cut planned expense, milched the PSUs and postponed the subsidy expenses for the next year. In response to the global crisis, he created a domestic crisis. He only gave Crocin to the ailing economy to bring down the temperature. He didn't treat the disease. The new government must bring out a white paper on the economy to expose Chidambaram's lies," Sinha said.

Reacting sharply to the allegations, Chidambaram said it was either born out of ignorance or is mischievious.

Chidambaram pointed out that subsidy bill of each year is paid at the end of every quarter and, therefore, the bill for the fourth quarter is paid in the first quarter of next year, and the same practice was followed in 2013-14 also.

"This has been the practice for many years and nothing unusual has happened in 2013-14," he said.

Chidambaram also blamed Sinha and his party BJP for stalling key reforms, including Goods and Services Tax (GST), Direct Tax Code (DTC) and insurance bill.