FM says market rally due to UPA govt, dismisses Modi factor

A stable UPA government and steps taken by it were responsible for market rally and not some kind of "hope", Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said, dismissing suggestions that propect of a Narendra Modi-led government after polls could be responsible for it.
"The rally is due to the fact of a stable government... not because of some kind of fond hope," he said and hit out at Narendra Modi, saying he is known to favour "crony capitalism."
In the last 18 months, government has taken a number of measures to strengthen the economy, Chidambaram told NDTV in an interview.
"We have contained the fiscal deficit, we have contracted the current account deficits substantially, we have added to our reserves, we have tamed inflation. I only wish that the firm hand on a wheel can continue for some time."

He refuted that the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate is seen to be growth oriented.
"Even Modi won't make such an extravagant claim.... It's obvious that big business and I am using the word big with capital B. Big business is supporting the BJP but that's because Mr Modi is known to favour crony capitalism."

He added that the hallmark of UPA government is growth.
"We delivered 8.5 per cent growth in the first five years and we have delivered 7.2 per cent growth in the next four years. The NDA record does not even match 7.2 per cent," Chidambaram said.

"In hindsight, what we did in 2009 was right but perhaps, perhaps, we should have pulled back beginning 2011, the pullback started only after I returned to the Finance Ministry in August 2012 and we have shown result, if we had pulled back a year earlier these results would have been visible even last year," he said when asked whether there is a mistake which he as Finance Minister thinks the UPA should have never committed.
On the Vodafone tax issue, "Well I have explained it is not a retrospective tax, it is a clarificatory amendment that has retro-active operations. I think there is a vast difference in law between retrospective tax and clarificatory amendment which has a retro-active application.

"...Because of the perception that it is a retrospective tax, we have offered conciliation - it is Vodafone which is turning down the request for conciliation.