Accusing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of creating political instability in states like Karnataka and Goa, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said that instability will have an impact on the economy and deter foreign investors.
Participating in the debate on Union Budget 2019-20 in Rajya Sabha, he said: "What we've seen in Karnataka and Goa may appear to be political upmanship but it has a very damaging effect on the economy. Foreign investors, rating agencies, international orgsations don't follow Indian media. What they hear and read on political instability will have an impact on the economy."
He said, "I wish I was speaking under happier circumstances. I'm not unhappy only because India lost the cricket match yesterday. I'm very unhappy that democracy is suffering a blow every day."
Raising concerns over increasing unemployment rate in the country, Chidambaram cited examples to say: "For 62,907 government jobs in the Railways, 82 lakh candidates applied of which 4,19,137 were B.Tech graduates and 40,751 had Masters in Engineering. This is the economy you inherited and I don't blame her (Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman) for that."
"But taking note of the reality, you should've been bold. The government has a superb mandate- 303 people in Lok Sabha. Dr Manmohan Singh and I have exchanged notes and we wish he had such mandate of that kind sometime in our life," he added.
While questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government for not taking bold measures, he said: "With your allies, you have a mandate of over 352, why have you inherited this situation? Why did you not take bold measures?"
( With inputs from ANI )