Date:23/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/23/stories/2008012360041300.htm

National

Chidambaram blamed

Special Correspondent

Kolkata: Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram “must take the moral responsibility” for the disaster in the stock market that is reminiscent of the Harshad Mehta scandal which “shook the country when Manmohan Singh was Finance Minister,” CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said.

It could be “squarely attributed to the lavish inducements the Centre has given to unscrupulous traders and there is reason to believe that there have been malpractices resulting in the crash,” he told The Hindu.

“The shameful move of the government to attract foreign funds to inflate the foreign exchange reserve is a sign of the so-called shining Indian economy that is most disproportionate with the actual condition of the national economy. This has resulted in the present situation,” he said.