Chidambaram attacks BJP on demonetisation; deems it biggest man-made disaster worse than 2004 Tsunami

Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation drive by saying that this was the biggest man-made disaster that hit India and it was worse than the Tsunami that hit in 2004.

Earlier in the day, while addressing local trading community in Rajkot, Chidambaram said that he would have quit as finance minister if forced to implement the demonetisation.

He also targeted Modi over “hasty” implementation of the GST, 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."  

With PTI inputs