Modi's character has "deep flaws", follows crony capitalism:FM

In a scathing attack on Narendra Modi, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today accused him of pursuing "crony capitalism" and said he has "deep flaws" in his character.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters, he dismissed 18 questions raised by senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha against him on the economy as "puerile" and stressed that economic fundamentals have strengthened during the past 20 months.
"Business is quite comfortable with Dr Manmohan Singh and UPA finance ministers but there are sections of businesses which are extremely comfortable with Mr Narendra Modi because his brand of capitalism is crony capitalism," he said.

Replying to questions on a whole range of issues during an hour-long interaction with the media, Chidambaram said the government would consider relaxing restrictions on gold imports in consultation with the Reserve Bank after its monetary policy announcement tomorrow.
On the contentious issue of the gas price hike, the minister said there was no obligation on the Oil Ministry to seek the Election Commission's nod on a cabinet decision and added it was done only as matter of abundant caution.
Drawing a comparison of key parameters under the UPA and NDA regimes, Chidambaram said GDP growth plummeted to the lowest ever of 4 per cent in 2002-03 during the NDA period.

On the other hand, he added, the country achieved the highest economic growth rate of 9.3 per cent in 2007-08, which was a watershed year.
Referring to Sinha's comments that the stock market rose after Chidambaram announced that he wouldn't contest the elections, the Finance Minister said, "I think the celebrations began when Mr Yashwant Sinha declined to contest elections and the celebrations are continuing.
"Now that the BJP is doing a number of things like expelling Jaswant Singh...Celebrations are continuing now. Even today, the market celebrated.