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Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Thursday blamed Finance Minister P. Chidambaram for the deterioration of the economy, and said he has no solution to stabilize the ongoing crisis.
'Chidambaram has no solution to any of the problems. He has very cleverly put the blame on the former Finance Minister, who is the Prime Minister of the country today. He had said that the policies between 2008 and 2010 are responsible for all the problems. I want to ask him what about the policies from 2004? He has absolutely no solution,' Joshi told media here today.
'He doesn't understand the problems of this country; he has destroyed industries, agriculture, employment and even education. God forbid if the tension in Syria escalates, the oil prices will go up. I hope the Prime Minister gives a statement, taking all these aspects into consideration, and if he has a solution, he should discuss it with all of us,' he added.
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 August 27 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.
The rupee on Thursday recovered from its all-time low of 68.75 to the dollar, rising 170 paise to Rs. 67.10 against the dollar in early trade.
The rise was attributed to fresh selling of the US currency by exporters and banks.
