P Chidambaram: PM gave headline, blank page: Chidambaram in financial package

NEW DELHI: Senior congressional leader P Chidambaram mocked the prime minister’s announcement of a Rs 20 lakh crore financial package as “headline and blank page” on Wednesday, saying he was waiting for the finance minister to fill the blank page.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced new massive financial incentives on Tuesday in addition to the previously announced packages for a combined stimulus of Rs 20 lakh crore.

Chidambaram said he would count each additional rupee that the government infuses into the economy and examine what poor, hungry and devastated migrant workers get after walking hundreds of kilometers to their home states.

“Yesterday, PM gave us a headline and a blank page. Naturally, my reaction was blank!

“Today, we expect the FM to fill in the blank page. We will carefully count every ADDITIONAL rupee that the government will actually infuse into the economy,” he said on Twitter.

The former finance minister said, “Shall we also carefully examine who gets what?”

“And the first thing we will look for is what poor, hungry and devastated migrant workers can expect after they have walked hundreds of kilometers to their home states.”

“We will also examine what the bottom half of the population (13 crore families) will get in terms of REAL MONEY,” he said in a series of tweets.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also criticized the prime minister’s announcement.

“Last night, the Prime Minister did what he thought was best. Maximum packaging, minimum meaning. It was a classic NAMO case. Just no action message,” he said on Twitter.