 "Dasgupta takes on Chidambaram, says country on brink of 'economic emergency'")
'The government has no political will to hold the present situation. They are bringing ruin to the country. We have almost reached a situation where there maybe an economic emergency,' Dasgupta said.
Dasgupta, specifically, taunted Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, and said that he is inept to take decisions that can alleviate the present deteriorating condition of the country's economy.
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'The government does not take care-it leaves everything to the market, when the market is collapsing. The government should take emergency steps. What is to be done should be a matter of discussion between the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI),' Dasgupta said.
'Everything is left to a single person known as Chidambaram-a lawyer turned economist. He is incapable of taking a decision. He is only talking about reforms. Reform does not mean that everything will be decided by the speculators,' he added.
Earlier today, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha suggested that the country should go into early Lok Sabha elections to bail the economy out of its present slump, and said that the economic future under the Congress-led UPA Government looks bleak.
'The only thing which will stabilize the market and the rupee is for the government to resign and to go for fresh elections-that is the only thing which is going to stabilize the market. I shudder to think what is going to happen over the next eight-nine months, if this government continues in power. Without any prejudice, I am saying let's go for elections otherwise we will suffer even more,' Sinha said.
On Wednesday, the rupee continued to topple and hit its record low of 68.75 against the U.S. dollar.
In order to arrest the rupee slide, RBI had announced measures such as restriction on Indian firms investing abroad and on outward remittances by resident Indians, triggering talks of return of capital control regime.
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had earlier on Tuesday during a debate on the economic situation in the Lok Sabha attributed much of the current economic woes to the stimulus provided to help the industry to tide over the problems emanating from the global financial meltdown of 2008.
'Fiscal deficit limits had been breached. The CAD had swelled. These were the two main challenges, apart from the number of other challenges that we had to face,' he said.
Chidambaram, however, claimed that situation had improved till the unexpected development on May 22, 2013, when the US Federal Reserve announced tapering of bond purchases which sent the emerging markets in a tizzy.
'In the last 12 months there have been days when I have been more upbeat; days when I been more downcast. But the fact is some stability did return to the economy until a completely unexpectedly unexpected event took place on May 22, 2013', he said.