BJP's 18 questions to Chidambaram on economy

Manufacturing and mining registered a decline of 1.9 per cent and 1.6 per cent during the quarter, he said further.

Sinha said these numbers would have been worse but for 7 per cent increase in the personal, community and social services category “reflecting irresponsible government spending rather than real economic expansion”.  

Taking a dig at Chidamabram, who had announced he would not be contesting this elections, Sinha asked:

“Is it a fact that the markets have celebrated your announcement of not standing for the elections; that on March 19, 2014 when you made this announcement the BSE Sensex shot up by 125 points, that the forex market was also delighted and the rupee has strengthened considerably against the dollar since then.”

On the issue of employment and job creation, quoting a survey by NSSO (National Sample Survey Organisation), Sinha said that over 6 crore job opportunities were created between 1999-2000-2004-05 (NDA government) as opposed to 1.5 crore between 2004-05 to 2011-12 (UPA governments).