'Standing on shoulders of UPA': P Chidambaram slams Centre
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New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday countered Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s claims in an article about the achievements of the Modi government in the last nine years.
"Every government will have achievements to its credit. So does the Modi government. If the Modi government stands tall in some areas, it is because it is standing on the shoulders of the UPA government," he said.
The finance minister has cited five examples of the Opposition taking the government to court and losing the case, Chidambaram noted.
"She is wrong at least in three: The SC had declared triple talaq illegal even before Parliament passed a law. The Article 370 case has not yet been heard by the Court. Numerous cases under the GST laws are pending," Chidambaram argued in his long Twitter post.
The finance minister claims credit for India achieving top ranks in the production of milk, honey, fruit, and vegetables, he pointed out and added that these ranks were achieved years ago, and "we retain those ranks".
"The Hon'ble FM claims credit for Direct Benefit Transfer. She forgets that Aadhaar was conceived, created, and rolled out by the UPA government and the first transfers under DBT were done by the UPA government," Chidambaram said.
The finance minister boasts about the 11.72 crore toilets built. She should read her own government's reports on how many of them are unused and unusable because they lack water, the senior Congress leader said.
In an article in The Indian Express, Sitharaman also criticized the Opposition and said that its role had, sadly, been less in Parliament.
"It has been more to disrupt and delay through filing petitions in the courts of law rather than debate and discuss in the House. Over 15 cases, including on the GST, Article 370, vaccination, triple talaq, Central Vista, was vigorously argued only for them to lose in each one of them," she had said.
With inputs from PTI