Swamy demands sacking of FM for inability to tackle inflation

New Delhi, Feb 16 (UNI) Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy today demanded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh immediately sack Finance Minister P Chidambaram for his ''inability'' to tackle inflation, and giving a ''free hand to speculators.'' In a statement, Dr Swamy said the present overheating and inflation was an indication of 'incompetence'. ''The wholesale price index was showing just 6.58 per cent rise annually, while the retail prices are galloping at 17 per cent. The prices of all essential commodities like wheat flour, pulses, onion, sugar, cooking oil and washing power ranged from 24 per cent to cent per cent increases,'' he said.

Dr Swamy claimed that inflation was entirely due to Mr Chidambaram giving a free run to speculators and permitting forward trading and bank finance to hoarders. ''He is now hell bent to raising interest rates and throttling GDP growth,'' he said, contending that the solution lay in checking speculators, forward traders and halting black money laundering using participatory notes instruments in stock market. ''The FM was in 'league' with racketeers,'' Dr swamy alleged.

UNI