A war of words erupted between P Chidambaram and the BJP over the country’s economic growth after the finance minister slammed BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s comments and accused him of “staging a fake encounter with facts”.
Chidambaram criticized Modi for his comments that economic growth rate during the NDA coalition headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee was at 8.4%. This sparked off a furious exchange between Chidambaram and BJP which hit back saying the finance minister was indulging in “terrorism with facts” and accused him of statistical jugglery.
“Nothing can be further from the truth... I wonder why Shri Narendra Modi should stage a fake encounter with facts. Ultimately, facts will prevail,” Chidambaram said. The finance minister was reacting to media reports which quoted Modi as saying that growth rate during the Vajpayee regime was 8.4%.
Chidambaram reeled out data and said the average growth rate of the six year period of the Vajpayee coalition was 6% and the average for the last five years was 5.9%. “By contrast, the average for UPA-1 was 8.4% and for the first four years of UPA-2, the average has been 7.3%,” Chidambaram said.
The two worst years since the turn of the century were 2000-01 (4.3%) and 2002-03 (4%). If there was a golden period of growth, it was the five year period under UPA-1,” he added.
The BJP came out all guns blazing and said the finance minister was making unfair comparisons. Senior BJP leader and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha said Chidambaram was indulging in “statistical jugglery” and citing different figures to back his claim.
“They are comparing nine years average with five years average of NDA,” Sinha said, adding that Chidambaram is “doing terrorism with facts”.
Congress spokesman P C Chacko attacked the BJP for what he said was the party’s “favourite pastime of mixing facts with fiction”.
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