New Delhi: A scathing article on the state of economy by none other than Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s husband Parakala Prabhakar has turned out to be the political hot potato, all the more so, as it came ahead of two Assembly elections just a week away.
Parakala Prabhakar in an article in a news daily has suggested that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not been able to propose any economic framework of its own.
If that ‘wasn’t an embarrassment enough’ for a government that has seen enough indicators of economic slowdown, including a lowered GDP projection, the husband of the Finance Minister advised the Narendra Modi government to ‘embrace’ his predecessors – former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and PV Narasimha Rao’s economic model.
Prabhakar is himself an economist. He comes from a political family himself and both his parents were legislators in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly. His asking to return to Rao’s model of economy shouldn’t be surprising, considering the Parakala family was closely associated with PV Narasimha Rao.
In a no-holds-barred attack on the Modi government, Prabhakar alleged: “In economic policy, the party mainly adopted ‘Neti Neti (Not this, Not this’), without articulating what was its own Niti (policy)’.”
The Congress, expectedly lost no time in attacking the government. Congress’s Bengal unit chief Somen Mitra took tweeted: “They may have mocked him for years without having an iota of knowledge how an economy as big as that of India runs, but at the end of the day, Dr Manmohan Singh and his reform model continues to be the ultimate benchmark of development for the Indian economy.”
Taking a dig at BJP’s appropriation of Sardar Patel, Prabhakar also suggested that BJP could portray Narasimha Rao on the economic side, just the way it has done for Patel. He also insinuated, ‘a muscular political, nationalist, security platform’ was created to compensate the deficiency on economic front and a re-election bid.
The BJP has been tight lipped about the entire saga. When contacted, a senior party functionary directed to the media department, while two BJP spokespersons refused to comment on it claiming ignorance.
However, the Congress, which has got an endorsement from the spouse of the Union Minister, was in no mood to let go. Pawan Khera of the Congress told IANS: “That’s sane advise coming from Mr Parakala Prabhakar.”
Prabhakar during his unsuccessful political stint had lost an election followed by a bypoll. Later he joined BJP before leaving the saffron fold to be a part of the new political Party ‘Prajarajyam’ and became its founding general secretary and spokesperson.
IANS