Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday supported the Central government’s plan to downsize the Planning Commission but questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s accusation that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government left behind a tottering economy.
“My personal view is that the Planning Commission should be a much more limited body tasked with drawing up prospective plans. At the moment, it is unwieldy, flabby and too big an organisation,” he replied to reporters’ question.
Reacting to Modi’s recent remark that the previous government had left “nothing”, Chidambaram said the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) should now come out of “campaign mode” and get on with the business of governing the country. “We left behind an economy where the fiscal deficit has been reduced, current account deficit has been sharply contained, and a clear path of fiscal consolidation has been laid out. We also left behind a 10-point agenda which contains a vision for the future,” the former finance minister said.
If Modi referred to the cash balance, the opening cash balance on June 1, 2014, was Rs 26,510 crore, he said.
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