P Chidambaram who got released from Tihar Jail yesterday after getting bail addressed the nation via press conference at Congress Headquarters. In the press conference the former Finance Minister said that NDA Government has led India’s economy to a slowdown, he added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been ‘unusually quiet’ on the economic slowdown.
Chidambaram, who spend 105 days in prison said ‘The government is making mistakes. It is wrong. Let me repeat, the government is wrong and they are wrong because they are clueless’.
He further added that the Indian “Prime Minister has been unusually silent on the economy. He has left it to his ministers to indulge in bluff and bluster. The net result, as the Economist put it, is that the government has turned out to be an ‘incompetent manager’ of the economy”.
The former Finance Minister said that the Modi led government has closed its eyes and is unable to look at the clues right in front of them, he said ‘because it (the government in power) is stubborn and mulish in defending its catastrophic mistakes like demonetisation, flawed GST, tax terrorism, regulatory overkill, protectionism, and centralised control of decision-making in the PMO’.
Chidambaram said that the numbers put forward point that the Indian economy is struggling. He said that the government can pull Indian out of this slowdown, however the government is in constant denial of the scenario.
Chidambaram, during the press conference, said ‘nothing sums up the state of the economy better than the following series of numbers: 8, 7, 6.6, 5.8, 5 and 4.5. Those are the quarterly growth rates of GDP in the last six quarters. We will be lucky to end the year if growth touches 5 per cent’. He continued by reminding ‘Dr Arvind Subramanian’s caution that 5% under this government, because of suspect methodology, is not really 5% but less by about 1.5 per cent’.
Earlier, when he went to the parliament he told the reporters that ‘The government cannot suppress my voice in parliament’ before joining Congress MPs in a protest against sky high surge in onion prices.
After he was released from the Tihar Jail on bail, Chidambaram went to Sonia Gandhi’s residence to meet here in the evening. He told the reporters that he is ‘happy that Supreme Court has passed an order granting bail and I am happy that I have stepped out and breathing the air of freedom’ after 105 days.
Chidambaram, 74, was given bail by the Supreme Court of India yesterday in the money laundering case involving INX Media.
Read the article here: P Chidambaram Gets Bail After 105 Days, Court Asks Him Not To Give Press Interviews
The top court asked Chidambaram to take permission from it before leaving the country and will have to appear in the court whenever asked to for questioning. Additionally, the Apex court also ordered Chidambaram to talk about the case in public, including media. The court had said that though economic offences are grave in nature ‘It is not a rule that bail should be denied in every case’, adding that the prosecutor did not submit any evidence that Chidambaram has any influence or will influence on key witnesses linked to the case.
On the 21st of August 2019, Chidambaram was arrested by the CBI from his Delhi residence. CBI is investigating INX money laundering case and questioning him trying to find whether he as then Finance Minister of India has anything to do with the case.
On the 16th of October, ED (Enforcement Directorate) arrested him in alleged links with the money laundering case. P Chidambaram is also accused of having numerous overseas bank accounts which he uses for this purpose along with creating shell companies.
