‘… jealous of Indian economy’: Sitharaman laments on Congress

Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union finance minister, lamented on Monday that “Some people in Parliament are jealous” of the country’s expanding economy in response to a question in the Lok Sabha over India’s currency devaluation.

“India has the fastest-growing economy but opposition has a problem with it. Everyone should be proud of India’s growth but some people take it as a joke,” the minister said.

Sitharaman was responding to a question from Congress MP Anumula Revanth Reddy, who wanted to know if the administration was aware that the Indian rupee is “weakening day by day and has hit 83 per US dollar for the first time ever” and what steps were being done to stop the decline. Reddy also made a dig at the federal government by recalling a statement made by then-Gujarat chief minister and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2013 that was directed at the Manmohan Singh-led UPA administration.

Today Rupee is in ICU. I do not know why Tamil people sent this person to Delhi,” Modi had tweeted in October 2013 in a subtle dig at P Chidambaram, who was then the Union finance minister.

“The Indian rupee has been strong against every currency. Reserve Bank has used foreign exchange reserves that it has to intervene in the market to make sure that the Dollar-Rupee fluctuation does not go too much,” Sitharaman replied.

As significant selling pressure in local equities and a strong dollar in the foreign market impacted on investor sentiments, the rupee fell 35 paise to 82.63 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday, according to PTI. At the interbank foreign exchange, the local unit had a shaky start versus the dollar, trading at 82.54, before losing more ground to quote at 82.63, falling 35 paise from its previous close.