My mother, Harvard taught me the value of hard work: Chidambaram's dig at Narendra Modi

New Delhi: The Finance Minister and the BJP's prime ministerial candidate are engaged in pitched battle over - hard work. P Chidambaram used his last budget of this term to take a swipe at
Narendra Modi when he said today, "My mother and Harvard taught me the value of hard work."

He was responding to Mr Modi's recent taunt at a rally in the minister's home state Tamil Nadu, where he said that Mr Chidambaram had failed to revive the Indian economy despite his Harvard background. (Read)

Hours later came Mr Modi's riposte. "It's up to the people to decide whether the economist PM and FM have been 'hard working' or 'hardly working' in their tenure," he tweeted.

He had more. "Hard working Finance Minister also joins other UPA ministers who are seeking refuge in history to judge their performance," he tweeted, in a series of posts attacking the Finance Minister.

Mr Chidambaram has for long been one of the Congress' most aggressive Modi-baiters. Mr Modi has pulled no punches either.

At the Chennai rally last week the BJP leader had said, "The Finance Minister is from Harvard. The Prime Minister is an economist and he too has a degree from a big university. I have hard work to my credit. Going to Harvard means nothing. What matters is hard work... A man who has just studied in an ordinary school, sold tea and has not even seen the doors of Harvard has shown what it takes to handle economy." 

Mr Modi's BJP fancies its chances in the general elections due by May and its optimism has been boosted by surveys that give it an edge. It has attacked the Congress consistently on the issue of the economy's skid and a perceived policy paralysis.

In the interim budget he presented today, that also served as a economic report card before the national elections, Mr Chidambaram said he rejects "the allegation of policy paralysis."

Mr Modi tweeted, "The only solace one gets from the vote-on-account is that this was UPA's final act of misery after a decade of decay & policy paralysis."

Mr Chidambaram asserted today, "Our objectives were fiscal consolidation, reviving growth cycle, and enhancing manufacturing...I can confidently assert that fiscal deficit is declining, the current account deficit is constrained, inflation is moderated, exchange rate is stable."
(Read)