Minister Of Financial Jugglery

             

Minister Of Financial Jugglery

Former BJP Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha put it well when he said Mr P Chidambaram uses statistics to suit his purpose, sometimes quoting yearly or quarterly figures, sometimes an average.

Mr. Chidambaram, whose own multiple stints as Finance Minister at different times, has never seen high growth figures, seemed extremely strident in his reactions to Mr. Modi’s statements.

The economy, by way of contrast, did very well during Mr. Yashwant Singh’s tenure, thereby giving heft to his defense of Mr. Modi, and  credibility to his determination to refuse the Congress disinformation to go unchallenged. Mr. Modi, meanwhile, is too busy making friends and allies along with comrade in arms Party President Rajnath Singh, including, happily, TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu once more.

NaMo is primarily focussed on rousing the general voter to BJP’s side, and chooses not to take note of the constant barbs aimed at him personally by highly agitated Congress stalwarts.

Mr. Chidambaram’s latest  intemperate attack, using underhand street imagery on fake figures, that too while travelling in the US, perpetrated on BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Mr. Narendra Modi,  showed the extent to which the Government is rattled.  Figures are figures. All of them speak for themselves despite the attempted spin.

This juxtaposed with the Government of India’s highly damaged credibility in the eyes of the Americans cannot but add grist to the mill, and actually do Mr. Modi and the BJP a favour, nationally and internationally.  Mr. Modi seems to gain greater popularity the more he is unfairly criticised. This has happened throughout his political rise in Gujarat, and is now happening  across the board.

Not only are various senior members of the Congress attacking every statement made by Mr. Modi on a daily basis, they would, if they could, put a stop to Opinion Polls that show ever greater support for Mr. Modi, the BJP and its prospects, contrasted with the poor showing the UPA can expect for itself in the coming Assembly and General Elections.

The desperation of the Congress Party and many of its UPA allies, unable to counter the nation-wide Modi wave, has led to them resorting to such harangues and propaganda on the same stale agenda, with communal innuendo as its centrepiece. The UPA must therefore be terrified to witness the large Muslim attendance at many of NaMo’s rallies of late.

This is a pitched battle to grab the imagination and influence opinion against the contending political party. It is only natural at election time, and we are likely to see the thrust and parry hotting up more as the days go by.

But it is amusing to see every Congress Minister and spokesperson is on the defensive. It is, of course, hard to seize the initiative when the economy is in crisis, the prices of food and fuel at the highest ever, loans are becoming ever costlier, and the slowing of business and industry is crippling the country. 

Unable to better its own performance and credibility, the UPA stalwarts are busy attacking the Opposition instead. It is hoping against hope to survive the election by projecting itself as the known devil. But as NaMo said, the mood of the nation is like it was going into the general elections after the excesses of The Emergency.

Mr Modi did speak of over 8% growth per annum in GDP during Mr. Vajpayee’s time because it happened. Mr. Chidambaram’s nit- picking with averages is just an attempt to salvage the situation as best as he can.

But the UPA would be much better served to actually show some results on its problem- solving during its remaining months in power.

(603 words)

September 23^rd 2013

Gautam Mukherjee