A war of words erupted between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday on the state of the Indian economy under the coalition governments led by their respective parties at the Centre.
It started with finance minister P. Chidambaram terming BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s alleged claim that GDP under the NDA government grew by 8.4 per cent as staging a fake encounter with facts. However, the BJP hit back at Mr Chidambaram, saying the finance minister was himself indulging in “terrorism with facts”.
“Nothing can be further from the truth... I wonder why Shri Narendra Modi should stage a fake encounter with facts. Ultimately, facts will prevail,” Mr Chidambaram shot off in the morning. The finance minister said that the average growth for the six-year period under the NDA regime was six per cent and 5.9 per cent in the last five years of Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government.