)
The slanging match between P Chidambaram and Arun Jaitley refuses to end with the BJP leader today taking a dig at the Finance Minister saying he appears to be planning a life after retirement and practicing writing columns which will make "excellent" reading.
"Finally my friend Mr P Chidambaram, the Union Finance Minister appears to be planning life after the North Block. He is an extremely competent lawyer. Parliament's loss will be Supreme Court's gain.
"From the kind of statements he is making and the academic questions he is posing to his opponents, I suspect that he is practising to get back to column writing. I am sure his columns will make an excellent reading," Jaitley said today.
He was responding to posers by Chidambaram over the knowledge of economics possessed by BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, an issue which has been a subject of spat between the two senior lawyers.
Jaitley, however, did not answer the queries posed by Chidambaram yesterday when he sought to know "Why has Shri Modi said nothing about the fiscal deficit, nothing about the Current Account Deficit and nothing about monetary policy."
Chidambaram had raised such questions earlier also and Jaitley had attacked him saying he thought he is the "principal repository of all economic wisdom" even when the country's growth story is being turned into a "nightmare".
The Finance Minister had earlier slammed Modi saying that his knowledge of economics was so much that it can be written on the backside of a postage stamp.
