NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday cautioned the govt against taking inflation lightly and said every family was hit hard by price rise.
Initiating the discussion on the budget in Rajya Sabha, he raised five demands — that the govt ensure Rs 400 as the daily minimum wage, provide legal guarantee for purchase of farm produce at MSP, waive off unpaid balance of education loans till March 2024, abolish the Agnipath scheme, and allow states to exit from NEET if they don’t wish to be part of the national exam.
During his speech, Chidambaram focused on four themes — jobs, inflation, wages and federalism. “Unemployment is the biggest problem,” he said, citing instances of job seekers far exceeding available openings.
Raising the issue of inflation, he expressed concern that the finance minister “dismissed the subject in 10 words” in her speech. “Is inflation such a trivial subject that you can deal with it casually and dismiss it in 10 words? Inflation is a humiliating situation as every family is affected by it,” he said.
“I warn this govt, you are not taking inflation seriously. The results of the last set of by-elections in which the INDIA bloc won 10 out of 13 seats was a punishment and warning by the people to the NDA for high inflation,” he said. “If you don’t take inflation seriously, you will be punished more. If you want to suffer, you are welcome to suffer the punishment,” he cautioned.
The former FM also attacked the govt on the issue of federalism. “I don’t grudge at all that you are giving relief to Andhra Pradesh or Bihar, but what about other states? We are a federal country. You are the Union govt, you are the govt of all the states. You cannot pick and choose one state and deny relief to another state,” he said.
Initiating the discussion on the budget in Rajya Sabha, he raised five demands — that the govt ensure Rs 400 as the daily minimum wage, provide legal guarantee for purchase of farm produce at MSP, waive off unpaid balance of education loans till March 2024, abolish the Agnipath scheme, and allow states to exit from NEET if they don’t wish to be part of the national exam.
During his speech, Chidambaram focused on four themes — jobs, inflation, wages and federalism. “Unemployment is the biggest problem,” he said, citing instances of job seekers far exceeding available openings.
Raising the issue of inflation, he expressed concern that the finance minister “dismissed the subject in 10 words” in her speech. “Is inflation such a trivial subject that you can deal with it casually and dismiss it in 10 words? Inflation is a humiliating situation as every family is affected by it,” he said.
“I warn this govt, you are not taking inflation seriously. The results of the last set of by-elections in which the INDIA bloc won 10 out of 13 seats was a punishment and warning by the people to the NDA for high inflation,” he said. “If you don’t take inflation seriously, you will be punished more. If you want to suffer, you are welcome to suffer the punishment,” he cautioned.
The former FM also attacked the govt on the issue of federalism. “I don’t grudge at all that you are giving relief to Andhra Pradesh or Bihar, but what about other states? We are a federal country. You are the Union govt, you are the govt of all the states. You cannot pick and choose one state and deny relief to another state,” he said.