Sitharaman Slams Chidambaram: 'People Made Congress Get Out'

New Delhi, Feb 13 (PTI) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday hit back at P Chidambaram's 'get out of the way' remark by saying the people of India have made Congress "get out of government".

"People of India have made them (Congress) get out of government. People of India have made them get out of governance itself," she said while responding to former Finance Minister Chidambaram's remarks citing Chief Economic Advisor's advice to the government in the Economic Survey.

She was replying to a discussion on the general Budget in the Rajya Sabha, which witnessed heated exchanges between the opposition and treasury benches on various points of the Budget, including allocation to non-BJP-ruled states.

While initiating the debate on Monday in the House, Chidambaram while referring to the preface of the Economic Survey, recalled "What did he (CEA) say? He said, ‘Get out of the way'."

"That is all we are saying, ‘Get out of the way', in a different context. Deregulate!...Her (Sitharaman) response is to announce in the Budget Speech seven new schemes, eight new missions and four new funds!".

In her nearly two-hours reply on Thursday, Sitharaman also took a jibe at Chidambaram and his party saying even Mahatma Gandhi in 1947 had asked the Congress Party to get out of politics. You got disbanded.

"More importantly, if you go back, Mahatma Gandhi said to the Congress Party - Get out of politics. He said you (Congress) don't need to be in politics. But they are still lingering in India's political domain," the senior Minister said.

Referring to governance, Sitharaman said as far as Modi-government is concerned, the Prime Minister has repeatedly said that his government was against red-tape and was for red carpet for the industry.

"...1,550 obsolete laws have been removed. 40,000 necessary, unnecessary compliances have been removed, and also decriminalisation has happened for 3,400 offenses where people would have been put in jail. We have removed those crosses. We are certainly getting out," she said.

The Minister further said that the Chief Economic Adviser is independent and makes suggestions for the entire nation.

"I also want the state governments to follow this route of removal of archaic laws, get out... I wish the former Finance Minister tempts the Congress governments to please get out of the way. You don't disturb people. They want to be entrepreneurs. They want to grow," she retorted.

The Minister said it was the Modi-government that brought the Jan Vishwas law, abolished Angel Tax so that the startups can function, and then removed the notorious retrospective taxation which was brought during UPA.

Sitharaman also rubbished suggestions made by Chidambaram that the Budget has reduced allocation of the Ministry of External Affairs.

She also responded to SP member Jaya Bachchan's allegations that the film Industry has not been supported by the government, saying on the contrary that the NDA government has taken major steps for the film industry including the hosting of WAVES 2025.

India will host the first ‘World Audio Visual Entertainment Summit' (WAVES) in Mumbai from 1st-4th May 2025, which will bring together Media CEOs, entertainment icons and creative minds from around the globe.