BJP blames PM, his 'illustrious team' for inflation

NEW DELHI: With inflation touching a high of 8.75 per cent, BJP on Friday blamed the "illustrious team" led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for "monetary and fiscal failure".
    
"The illustrious team of Singh, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia is set to break its own record of above ten per cent inflation of 1994-95," party spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said here.
    
Singh was the Finance Minister, Chidambaram was commerce minister and Ahluwalia was the finance secretary during the Congress regime led by Narsimha Rao from 1991 to 1996.
    
"As it stands today, inflation would cross double digit mark. The monetary and fiscal policies of the government have failed completely," Rudy said.
    
For a common man, even thinking about the team of "learned economists leading the country's economy is nightmarish and gives jitters to them," he added.
    
The party alleged that the UPA government by its mismanagement of the economy has served a "death warrant" to the common man.
    
The saffron party claimed that even during NDA rule, oil prices had seen an upsurge but "prudent fiscal policies of the (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee government" had managed to contain inflation.