Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram are failed economists, don't need certificate from them: Naidu

Hitting back at former prime minister Manmohan Singh and former finance minister P. Chidambaram who criticised the government of 'painting a rosy picture of Indian economy' and not paying attention to key metrics like jobs creation, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said the government is not interested in the remarks who "ruined the nation" with their "bad economic policies."

"Don't need certificate from these two people. Both are failed economists, they fooled the nation, they have ruined the economy because highest inflation, lowest inflation happened during Manmohan and Chidambaram combination days. All the scams and scandals has affected the image of the country, ruined the country and economy also so what right do they have us to criticise us for demonetisation or re-monetisation," Naidu said.

Stating that Demonetarisation was long overdue, Naid said, 86 percent of currencies became the source of corruption and parallel economy was being.

Naidu further said government had anticipated the ill effects of demonetisation and was already working to restore the situation.

"We anticipated this way earlier. I have repeatedly said demonetisation is like a bitter pill short pain for long term gain. They are blowing it out of proportion to convey a wrong message to the nation," he added.

The Minister's comment came in response to Manomohan's who said that Indian economy is not in a good shape and added that several rating agencies, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate from 7.6 percent to 6.6 percent.

Releasing a document titled 'Real State of the Economy 2015', two days ahead of Budget Session, Singh said, "Indian economy is not in good shape is so obvious. Even the IMF has projected that the growth rate of India in the current fiscal year will not be 7.6, but less than that, i.e. 6.6 percent. There are several other rating agencies which have made similar projections."

Former finance minister P. Chidambaram, who was also present at the joint press conference, said the document presents true assessment of the state of India's economy and is supported by hard research and data.

"Yet if the government presents a rosy picture of the economy tomorrow, people of India are entitled to question that," he said.

Pointing out that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was able to deliver 7 percent GDP during its 10-year tenure, Chidambaram said the current dispensation has failed to sustain the growth rate and has failed to create jobs for the people.