I Would Have Quit If Forced To Implement Note Ban, Says Chidambaram
Chidambaram takes on the Modi-government over demonetisation, GST and the bullet train.
Assailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi over demonetisation, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram today said he would have quit as finance minister if forced to implement the measure.
He also targeted Modi over "hasty" implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, and his pet bullet train project.
"If my prime minister had asked me to do demonetisation, I would have advised him 'please don't', and if he had insisted, then I would have resigned," he told reporters on the sidelines of an event where he delivered a lecture on 'The State Of Economy'.
Noting that demonetisation and "rushing through with the GST were two major mistakes" of the Modi government, he said, "demonetisation was a bad idea, full stop. GST is a good idea, but it has been hastily implemented. It should have been implemented with due care and attention." Pitching for a cap on the GST at 18 percent, the former Union minister flayed multiple slabs in the rate structure.
Delivering the lecture on the economy organised by the local trading community, Chidambaram said the prime minister's ambitious bullet train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai should not have been a priority.
Focus, he said, should have been on improving safety, cleanliness, better compartments and stations, better signalling systems and improving suburban transport.
"Hardly 600 people will use bullet train (on one way journey) when it is completed, and government has borrowed huge amount of money from Japan for this. Instead the government should utilise the money for health and education, which the people want," he said, adding bullet train can become a priority 10-15 years later not now.
