Chidambaram attacks Modi govt over unjust growth in Gujarat

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said on Tuesday his only regret in life was not having served as finance minister in a government which had an "absolute majority", as he targeted the Modi government over its economic policies.

Chidambaram said development had indeed "gone crazy" in Gujarat, and criticised the BJP government in the state for leading what he called a "skewed, unfair, unjust and inequitable growth".

He also came down heavily on the Centre's bullet train project whose foundation was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in Ahmedabad recently.

"The only regret in my life is that I was never a finance minister in a government with absolute majority," he told businessmen at a function organised by the Congress party at Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI).

Referring to the massive majority the BJP-led NDA had in the Lok Sabha, he said anything could have been done with that kind of mandate.

"We could have completely reformed the finance sector, we could have passed the direct taxes code, we could have passed a near perfect GST. With that kind of majority, any laws could have been changed. Anyway, that did not happen," he said.
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