Grow out of Gujarat, get to work, Chidambaram tells Modi

Accusing Narendra Modi of behaving like the "prime minister of Gujarat", former finance minister P. Chidambaram Saturday sought to know when the BJP-led central government will roll out concrete policy initiatives.

"Its 140 days since this government is in power. The PM appears to be in a perpetual campaign mode," Chidambaram told media persons, on Modi's ongoing mega-campaign for the Oct 15 Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections.

He said that there appear to be some new initiatives, like the Jan Dhan Yojana but "it is nothing by the financial inclusion scheme of the our Congress-led UPA government, and over 23 lakh bank accounts were opened".

Even the 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan' is like our Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, "but we welcome it as these are extensions of our old programmes", Chidambaram noted.

However, the Congress leader sought to know when there would be major policy measures for key sectors like shipping, aviation, infrastructure, coal, mining, steel and others.

"We had a full-fledged internal security set-up focused on countering terrorism, Maoism and the problems in the northeast. What is the ruling NDA's policy on these?" he asked.

He also noted there are dozens of key ministeries and organizations which are headless.

"There is no full-fledged defence minister, advisor to finance minister is not yet appointed, there is no chief vigilance commissioner, no chief information commissioner... Planning Commission is scrapped, but the new replacement is yet to be announced," Chidambaram said.

Referring to defence issues, he said in October itself, there have been 63 incidents on the Line of Control and International Border from Pakistani side, and there were similar incidents with China too.

"Where is the '56-inch chest' now? During the UPA tenure, the LoC (Line of Control) was relatively peaceful and we were building fences. Have you ever seen people fleeing the villages," Chidambaram said, referring to the latest disturbances on the borders.

He also attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders for 'rubbishing' the achievements of Maharashtra during their ongoing poll campaign in this state.

"Such statements must be condemned. Maharashtra continues to be No. 1 in several aspects," Chidambaram said.