Chidambaram hits back at Yashwant Sinha and Narendra Modi

New Delhi: Getting into a major battle over the economy with the BJP, Union finance minister P. Chidambaram on Monday accused the party’s PM candidate Narendra Modi of promoting and supporting “crony capitalism,” while dismissing all accusations by BJP leader Yashwant Sinha Sunday as “puerile.”

Talking to reporters at the AICC headquarters here, Mr Chidambaram  said, “Business is quite comfortable with  Manmohan Singh and UPA finance ministers, but there are sections which are extremely comfortable with Narendra Modi bec-ause his brand of capitalism is crony capitalism.”

He said the economy was in much better shape, with foreign exchange reserves rising and fiscal and current account deficits firmly under control.

“The economy is far more stable and far stro-nger today than what it was 20 months ago... what we fear may happen has not happened,” he said.

Mr Chidambaram, who opted out of the polls, insisted that the next finance minister will not be of Mr Modi’s choosing, and added, “I will keep a firm hand on the wheel till the last day, and hand over the wheel to a firm hand.”

The finance minister also said the government had been able to contain the fiscal deficit and the current account deficit (CAD).

On the 18 questions raised by Mr Sinha, the Union finance minister said,  “Many of them are quite puerile questions... Mr Sinha today is a distant memory for the people of India and I hope he remains where he is a distant memory.”

Referring to inflation, Mr Chidambaram said, “We have contained inflation. I am not saying that we have tamed inflation, but we have moderated it.”