Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha took a dig at outgoing FM P Chidambaram on Sunday saying that the Bombay Stock Exchange’s sensitive index’s rise coincided with the announcement that the latter wasn’t contesting Lok Sabha polls 2014.

Addressing scribes at the BJP headquarters here, Sinha said, “Chidambaram tried to bring down fiscal deficit very artificially. (As a result) The UPA is leaving a huge burden of subsidy on the next government.”

And added, “The Finance Minister will be remembered in history as a spoiler and an arrogant leader.”

Continuing his tirade against the outgoing United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, Sinha said that the Congress-led government showed no concern for the poor and downtrodden strata of the society.

“UPA has no concern for BPL families,the last survey was done by NDA in 2002, since then there’s been no new survey,” said Sinha.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said the next government led by Narendra Modi would have to undertake major reforms to undo the damage caused by the UPA government.

“We are in a very, very delicate situation and the new government will have to undertake major economic reforms to rectify what damage the UPA has done to Indian economy,” said Swamy in Bangalore.

Hitting out at UPA government for economic growth rate of 4.8 per cent when compared to NDA’s 8.4 per cent, he said fiscal deficit was at all time high and could lead to a major crisis.

“….Government has now reached the stage that for every Rupee that they borrow from public sector bank, 96 paisa they have to repay as interest on principal for the previous loan.”

He said, “we are in a complete mess and the most alarming part of today’s situation is that the budget has been put in such a difficult and bad state by Chidambaram …”

Stating that the next government would be led by Modi, Swamy said, “it is going to face a situation of bankruptcy of Indian economy, which it will have to rectify within six months.”

BJP’s manifesto will speak about some of the economic reforms planned by the party, he added. Contesting UPA’s claim that large part of economic crisis is due to external crisis, he said “….We were affected by the instrument created by Chidambaram that was called participatory note….Participatory note is a method of laundering money that goes out of India to bring it back and invest it in our stock market.”

Jaswant Singh has said that he is deeply saddened by the decision to expel him from the BJP. Mr. Singh, 76, was expelled on Saturday for six years for refusing to change his mind about running as an independent candidate for Parliament from Barmer in Rajasthan.

“I am saddened that the BJP of today is not the party that Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had envisioned and aspired it to be,” Mr. Singh said in a statement.
“A party that puts the whims of individuals before the greater good of people, has certainly lost its vision,” he added.

Mr. Singh won the last national election from Darjeeling in West Bengal. He said he wanted to relocate to Barmer, where he was born, because he felt he may not contest another election after this one.

The party refused, choosing Col Sonaram Choudhary who switched sides just weeks ago from the Congress to the BJP. The retired army officer is a Jat, the dominant caste in the region. Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje championed his candidature, according to party sources.

Mr. Singh said that he would have supported any candidate with a clean record instead of the Congress defector with a questionable public record. “BJP frittered away its virtue for temporary political gain,” he said adding, “Fight in Barmer is a fight for values.”

The black box of the C-130J transport aircraft that crashed near Gwalior on Friday has suffered damage and the Indian Air Force (IAF) has sent it to the US to seek the assistance of its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin in decoding the data, officials said.

The connectors of the Flight Data Recorder or the black box are damaged along with the card inside the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR).

“To avoid any loss of data while trying to decode the equipment, we have decided to send the black box to the US,” an IAF spokesperson said.

The black box was sent by an early morning flight today to Lockheed Martin, he said.

The delay in decoding the black box data would also mean a delay in determining the cause of the crash, he said.

The IAF had stated on Friday that it would come out with a preliminary report on the reasons behind the mishap within 24 hours.

The IAF spokesperson also denied reports suggesting that the C-130J fleet had been grounded following the crash, saying the aircraft did not fly yesterday as the personnel of the squadron were busy in the last rites of the five victims of the crash.

The Super Hercules Special Operations transport aircraft crashed near Gwalior killing five crew members after taking off from Agra.

The aircraft had apparently hit a hillock before crashing on the rocky surface on the banks of Chambal River near Gwalior.

India had recently inducted six C-130J Super Hercules aircraft, which were bought from the US at a cost of around Rs. 5,780 crore (USD 962 million) four years ago.

The home base of the 77 squadron ‘Veiled Vipers’ operating the aircraft is at Hindon in Ghaziabad near New Delhi.

Former sports minister and senior Congress leader Ajay Maken admitted that the sports ministry remains the most coveted post for him. “I was told that I was being elevated by being inducted into Cabinet but I have a passion for the Sports and the portfolio is dear to me,” he said.

“We need a strong sports minister and he should be given full five years to function,” he said over the need of a sports minister in the government.

Speaking about the shortcomings in the sports scenario in India, Maken said that the country needs better sports culture. People are still focusing only on studies and not on physical fitness. This thought needs to be changed,” he said adding that there is no no dearth of funds or resources in sports.

“We need a strong sports minister and he should be given full five years to function,” the former sports minister said.

“Government and sports federations have a very important role to play in encouraging a better sports culture,” he said.

He also suggested that Physical Fitness Programme should be brought in to develop sports culture. “Such programmes should be started and extra grades and weightage should be given to develop a better sports scenario,” he said.
Answering a question on the Olympics, Maken said, “Doubling medals with every Olympic game is what we are looking at.”

Speaking about the upcoming elections where he is fighting from Delhi, he said that he is concentrating on his work in the constituency. “I do not think about my opponents. I’m going to my electorate with positive work that I have done in the past,” he said.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal commenced his road show in Chandigarh in support of party candidate Gul Panag for next month’s election.

Mr. Kejriwal arrived in Chandigarh from Haryana where he was on a road show since Friday.

After his road show in the Union Territory, Mr. Kejriwal will travel to Panchkula in Haryana on his way to Panipat and Sonipat where he will culminate his three-day electioneering for the upcoming general elections.

A large number of police personnel have been deployed along Mr. Kejriwal’s road show route to avoid any untoward incident.

But the AAP supporters have thrown traffic rules to the wind in Chandigarh – a city known for strict enforcement of traffic laws.

The AAP workers openly flouted the driving rules and safety norms while the traffic police remained a mute spectator.

The road show which commenced from Hallo Majra is scheduled to travel through various areas of Chandigarh, including Ramdarbar, Burail, Sectors 45, 44, 22, 29, Attawa and Mani Majra from where it will enter Panchkula in Haryana.

Besides Gul Panang, the other main contestants from Chandigarh include Congress’ sitting MP Pawan Bansal and another actor-turned-politician Kirron Kher from the BJP.