New Delhi sources have stated that former finance minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram termed Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian as a "good doctor" whose advice on the economy was not being heeded by the government. He tweeted as "Arvind Subramanian has been a good doctor since his appointment as the CEA in October 2014. The NDA government has been a terrible patient".
He alleged "The government continues to be in denial and the objective situation in the economy. It denies farm distress. Currently it denies even the diagnosis and the prescription of the doctor it engaged in 2014. Meanwhile Chidambaram also said he regarded the CEA as the doctor-in-residence to check his patient's health every day and, in case the patient fell ill, to prescribe the course of treatment and the medicines.
He added "A bad patient will not take the
medicines, and make his own diagnosis and prescription". Further he
claimed the Economic Survey pointed out that "it is striking that the
Centre's tax-GDP ratio is no higher than it was in the 1980s" and said,
after demonetization and the GST, it would be interesting to see how good the
collections have been and also the projections for the next year.
