GUWAHATI, Dec 16: Former Union finance minister and Rajya Sabha MP, P. Chidambaram took potshots at the Narendra Modi-led government, alleging that the “past seven and half years under BJP rule at the Centre have witnessed increased corruption, black money and criminal activities.”
Speaking at the ongoing state-level training camp for party members organised by the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) being organised at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra here on Thursday, Chidambaram said the last seven and a half years have brought about a fundamental change in the way the country has been run.
Taking a dig at the BJP’s slogan of “Achhe din”, the veteran Congressman said “the Acche din that the Prime Minister had talked about before the elections has now become increased corruption, black money, criminal activities, something which was confessed by a minister during the course of a debate in Parliament recently.”
“Every step taken by the government has been wrong, starting from demonetisation and ending with the farm bills. The Prime Minister said that demonetisation would eliminate black money. But look what happened …every single rupee in circulation came back to the Reserve Bank of India and fresh currency notes were circulated again,” he said.
“So demonetisation was a legal way to launder black money into white money….the only purpose of demonetisation was to make a law to convert black money into white money,” he alleged.
Chidambaram further alleged that electoral bonds, which are basically officially sanctioned bribes by the corporates to the ruling party, “are opened once every time the elections are announced.”
“For all the favours that have been done, you simply wait for an election to happen…95 percent of all electoral bonds have gone to BJP, which means that the government has been bribed for the favours done,” he claimed.
“The last, the biggest blow was the three farm bills which were passed through an ordinance passed in the House without a debate in Parliament…when we demanded the debate, they said the House was not in order…..the justification that there is disagreement between the parties as the Opposition opposed the bills and since there was disorder no debate could happen,” the Congress leader said.
Lauding Rahul Gandhi as “best astrologer” for predicting that the farm bills would have to be taken back, Chidambaram said that the Modi government was eventually forced to take back the bills…and eventually they took back and repeal it.
The former Union minister slammed the government for “suppressing” the COVID-19 deaths in the country by citing that certain deaths were due to co-morbidity and not coronavirus.
He further lambasted the government for the current state of the economy.
“I call them year-end gifts when you have high retail inflation, high wholesale inflation and higher unemployment rates. There is no money for the poor but there is enough money to write off loans of 13 corporate houses and write off bad loans,” he said.
Earlier, the septuagenarian political leader said that he was delighted that the training camp was organised by the APCC and the AICC.
“A party is alive only when it engages each other in a vibrant discussion. A party is alive only when it is willing to take its ideals to the people. The interaction with people throws up ideas which are absorbed by the party,” he said.
The Congress leader further urged party members to believe in themselves and their ideas as the party looks to rebuild itself in the days to come.