The Opposition parties in the Lok Sabha flayed the government for the fall in the value of the rupee against the US dollar. When the government was being taken to task, no senior member of the Union Cabinet was present in the House except Union parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath.
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, after securing the permission of the Speaker Meira Kumar to raise the issue of the sliding rupee during the Question hour, castigated the UPA government by saying, “Day before yesterday there was a debate in the House on the state of the economy in which the finance minister gave a long speech enumerating 10 steps and maintained that if these are implemented the economy will improve. After this the confidence of the country and the investors should have increased by at least 10-20 paise but it has actually fallen.”
Demanding a statement from the Prime Minister she said, “The country’s reputation is attached to the rupee. We want a statement from the Prime Minister, who is a renowned economist. Those having Ph.Ds in economics are not able to handle the economy.”
Rejecting the contention of the Union finance minister that the economy is in such bad shape on account of a divided polity, Ms Swaraj said that the UPA government should first get over its internal differences. She said, “Government is not able to take decisions as the Cabinet does not have unanimity of issues.”
Hitting hard at the government, Ms Swaraj said that whenever the government faces a problem it seeks to hold allies like A Raja (DMK) and Sharad Pawar (NCP) responsible.
She also attacked Mr Chidambaram for holding Mr Pranab Mukherjee responsible for the bad state of the economy. “The finance minister wanted to pass the blame on his predecessor who is now the President of India.”
Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav of the SP said that continuous falling of the rupee is a serious source of concern. Blaming the government for the fall of the Indian currency he said, “This is due to the wrong policies of the government. The budget of this year was also against the policies.”
Mr Sougat Roy (TMC) said that the sliding of the rupee is causing concern nationally and internationally. He opined that he passage of the Food Security Bill has led to apprehensions that the fiscal deficit is all set to increase.