His comparison of India with China in terms of growth figures prompted the Left to say that the two were not comparable. "We cannot because some people in this country do not want India to catch up with China. There are some people who want China to become an economic super power," he said to an uproar which caused pandemonium in the House. |
Elaborating on this, Chidambaram said: "When we talk of India we should talk only about those countries which are large and as complex as India, and that is China. We cannot talk of countries smaller or poorer than India."
The finance minister began on a much softer note with an enumeration of all the UPA's social sector programmes, including the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the food security programme, increase in old-age pensions and government schemes to revive water bodies.
He claimed that contrary to the claims made by Mohammad Selim of the CPI(M), the UPA government had fulfilled promises of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP). "Members will note that I have fulfilled my promise made to the House," he said, referring to the Rs 66,477 crore debt waiver package for farmers. "Never before in the history of this country has any government undertaken a loan waiver of this size and scale," he added.
Later, while defending the Indo-US nuclear agreement Chidambaram took the gloves off. "The 123 Agreement shall be implemented and interpreted in accordance with the principles of international law.
Under the customary international law as well as the Vienna convention on the law of treaties, any party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty," he said, trying to explain how the Hyde Act would not be binding on India.
