Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram today tore into government’s management of economy saying there is “complete lack of direction” with no command over situation and the economy is “stagnant“.

Nineteen months into government, he also asked the BJP-led government where are the jobs and private investment promised by the party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The Government seems to be stalled. The mid-year (economic) analysis (tabled in Parliament last week) is a confession that the Government has not been able to push growth.

“They have begun the exercise of tempering expectations down to about 7.2—7.3 per cent, a far cry from what they said at the beginning of financial year that they will achieve a growth rate of 8—8.5 per cent,” he told PTI in an interview.

Also, the government has started talking about not being able to achieve the fiscal deficit target of 3.5 per cent of GDP for 2016—17.

“All these points to a lack of command over the situation and lack of capacity to deal with the problem,” he said adding “This is complete lack of direction.”

In its Mid—Year Economic Analysis, the government on Friday lowered its economic growth forecast for 2015—16 to 7—7.5 per cent from 8.1—8.5 per cent. It said the target of bringing it down to 3.5 per cent in the next will face pressure from higher outgo on central staff wages due to implementation of the 7th Pay Commission and Defence pensions.

Asked where the government was lacking, he said, “I don’t think they have a command over the situation. Where are the jobs they promised, where is the private investment that they said will happen once they come to office?”

Stating that the Indian economy is “stagnant”, Chidambaram said when UPA left office, the country recorded 6.9 per cent growth in 2013—14.

“First quarter of 2014—15 growth was 7.3 per cent or so.

Now one and a half year later, we seem to be stuck in the same groove of 7.3 per cent. So it is fair to say that the economy is stagnant for the last 18 months. There is no uptick, no upturn at all,” he said.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) was coming in but no more than what came earlier, he said. “In the last 10 years FDI has been range bound——$35-45 billion a year. This year also we are getting the same amount of FDI, about $45 billion. There is nothing unusual about the figure.”

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