Jaitley hits back at Chidambaram over Modi barb

A day after the Union Finance Minister sneered at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s understanding of economics, BJP leader Arun Jaitley came up with equally contemptuous counter attack saying that economics student P Chidambaram can be credited with pulling down India’s GDP growth to below 5 per cent.

Jaitley also sought to know from Chidambaram the extent of economics Congress de facto prime ministerial candidate Rahul Gandhi knows. At an interview to a foreign news channel, Chidamabaram had reportedly said, “What he (Modi) knows about economics can be written on the back of a postage stamp.” Chidambaram had also questioned absence of references to fiscal deficit, CAD and monitory policy in the speeches of the BJP prime ministerial candidate.

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley came up with a detailed critique of Chidambaram’s observation titled “Should a successful chief minister be an economist?”.