Chidambaram seeks to pin Modi on economics

Reacting to BJP leader Arun Jaitley’s comments on his views on Narendra Modi in a TV interview, Union finance minister P Chidambaram said Jaitley has “carefully avoided” questions that he had raised about the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate and asked why the Gujarat chief minister did not speak on various economic issues.

Reacting to BJP leader Arun Jaitley’s comments on his views on Narendra Modi in a TV interview, Union finance minister P Chidambaram said Jaitley has “carefully avoided” questions that he had raised about the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate and asked why the Gujarat chief minister did not speak on various economic issues.

“He (Jaitley) has responded to my lighter-vein comment (that Modi’s knowledge of economics could be written on ‘back of a postage stamp’) and I enjoy such exchanges. However, he has carefully avoided the other questions that I raised,” Chidambaram said in a statement on Thursday.

In his counter poser, Chidambaram asked, “Why has Modi said nothing about the fiscal deficit, nothing about the current account deficit and nothing about monetary policy?”

Jaitley had taken on the finance minister after he told BBC about what he thought of Modi’s “understanding” of economics. Chidambaram said: “I expected Jaitley to rush to the defence of Modi, and he has not disappointed me.”

Ahmed Patel hits out at Guj govt on tribals

Political secretary of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel on Thursday lambasted the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat, accusing it of “neglecting tribal areas by not providing basic amenities.” Patel was in Gujarat to attend a tribal convention in Dahod district. “Tall claims are made by the government but ground reality is vastly different. There is hardly any development here. Tribals spread in the north eastern belt are not getting any tangible benefits from the state’s so called development,” he said. HTC