Former finance minister P. Chidambram talking to former CM Prithviraj Chavan at the venue. (Photo: Mrugesh Bandiwadekar)

Mumbai: Terming the decision to impose demonetisation as “utter madness”, former finance minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday slammed the union government over the slowdown in the economy. The Congress leader was in the city to speak to the youth ahead of the anniversary of the demonetisation announcement.

A critic of the move since the very beginning, Chidambaram said, “Demonetisation was the biggest human-made disaster. It was a catastrophe bigger than a tsunami or the Mumbai flood. It was an unparalleled misery.” Stating that he thought the decision had been taken to help people who had a lot of black money to convert it into white, Chidambaram said, “This is one of the biggest scams ever in India. Somebody someday will investigate it and do the right thing.”

Riding on its success in gaining the empathy of traders, the Congress party is now wooing students and the youth on issues concerning them. Chidambaram’s speech, organised by the Mumbai Youth Congress, was part of this strategy.

Chidambaram spoke at length about issues related to employment, job cuts in big companies and reasons for the economic slowdown. “Jobless growth is a time-ticking bomb.  Unfortunately, this government is not ready to listen to the concerns of the people of India. They have nothing to do with you,” he said.

Further, Chidambaram lambasted the union government over GST. “They have given a bad name to a good idea. We had warned them. But they did not listen to us,” he said. He hinted that should his party return to power again, the government would reduce the burden of taxation from 28 per cent to 18 per cent and the current complicated process of filing taxes would be completely dumped in favour of a new, smooth procedure. “The new government will abolish different rates of taxation in different states. But for that, you need to take the right decision at the right time," he said.