'A Congress FM will in future bring an iPad': Chidambaram on Sitharaman's 'bahi-khata'

NEW DELHI: When everyone was talking about finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for reminiscing traditional 'bahi-khata' (ledger) to carry Union Budget documents, a former finance minister under UPA regime took a dig at her choice.

Discarding the Budget briefcase, Sitharaman, who presented her maiden Budget, carried the documents draped in a red silk cloth with the national emblem.

Senior Congress leader Chidambaram, while addressing a press conference post the Budget session, was asked to comment on Sitharaman's choice for not going with the "suitcase" and instead opting for a "file". The former finance minister, who himself presented eight Budgets, took note of the question and laughingly nodded and replied, "She brought a file. Yeah, but take it from me, a Congress finance minister will in future bring an iPad."

Although, this is not the first question that he was asked. The first one was that "The opposition has repeatedly claimed that NPAs (non-performing assets) have increased while the government mentioned, in the Budget, that the figures have declined by Rs 1 lakh crore."

In response, Chidambaram replied: "The (government) claim is that NPAs have come down by Rs 1 lakh (crore). That's correct. A little over 10 per cent have become a little over 8 per cent. Please remember in the five years of Modi 1.0 government, banks wrote off Rs 5,55,603 crore. While the finance minister claimed that we have reduced by Rs 1 lakh crore, she should have also said, in the same period banks have written off Rs 5,55,603 crore. Why didn't she say that I don't know."

Here's the video of the conversation:



Rather than taking a different question from another person, Chidambaram chose to answer the second question too, in which he was asked to share his opinion on "until now, Budget was presented in a briefcase, but today it was presented in a folder."

To which, the senior opposition leader replied that a Congress finance minister will present the Budget using an iPad in future.

The opposition described the Budget as "insipid" and "old wine in a new bottle" and alleged that the finance minister gave no "meaningful relief" to any section of society.

Chidambaram, outside the Parliament, further stated that the government has tried to project India as "El Dorado" (a place of fabulous wealth for all), but in reality, the pain of the economy is being experienced.

Not only the opposition, India Inc has also given thumbs down to the Budget by the first full-time woman finance minister saying Sitharaman has chosen to walk the populist path and failed to usher in any concrete measures to boost growth and create jobs.

(With PTI inputs)