BJP today lashed out at Home Minister P Chidambaram for his remarks that the middle class is ready to pay for mineral water and ice-cream but can't bear an increase of Re 1 in price of wheat and rice,saying he has shown insensitivity towards them and ridiculed them. "It seems that Mr Chidambaram has inappropriately made a scandalous remark against the middle class and is ridiculing them. BJP would treat this remark as a complete hate statement reflecting the inner contradictions of the government itself," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said. He claimed that while the government has failed to deliver and rein in prices,control inflation or find a way out of the economic mess,the Home Minister has chosen to "torment the hapless common man". Rudy termed Chidambaram's statement as bizarre. "This stinks of complete insensitivity and BJP completely deplores the words of Mr Chidambaram. But at the same time nothing better is expected from this government and its ministers," he said. Another BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said Chidambaram does not understand the pain of the common man as he is confined to "air-conditioned rooms and flying in planes". "Chidambaram and the Congress are far removed from the common man. His comments are a joke on the people in a country where 50-60 crore live below the poverty line," he said. Condemning the statement,Hussain demanded that Chidambaram tender an apology. Red lines not obvious in UPA-II unlike UPA-I: Chidambaram Bangalore: UPA II faced "red lines" that are not obvious unlike UPA-I but the government learnt to adjust and get the allies on board,Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today said. "In UPA-1,I knew from the day one what the red lines were. I could not cross certain red lines. In UPA II frankly the red lines are not so obvious. Suddenly some new red line emerges that is the difference between UPA I and UPA II," he told reporters here. He was apparently referring to Left parties that provided crucial outside support to UPA-I and Mamata Banerjee led TMC,which is a partner in the present regime. However,seeking to down play differences among coalition partners,he said every party had its own political agenda and try to push it through."But as we find the new red lines we learn to adjust and we persuade people to get on board," he said. "For example in UPA-I we had the red line we could not disinvest. We managed to cross the red line once in the NTPC disinvestment but then again they drew a thicker red line and said no you can't disinvest. So we did only NTPC and we did not do anything thereafter," he said apparently referring to Left parties' strong opposition to disinvestment of public sector undertakings. Saying that the nuclear deal was another redline faced by UPA-I,he noted that was the breaking point. "We should try to run a coalition without reaching a breaking point," he added. To a question on the plight of middle class in view of high food inflation and price rise,Chidamabaram said the issues should not be looked from the point of view of urban middle class alone and said hike in procurement price reflected on food prices. "I don't think we should look at price hike from the point of view of the urban middle class alone. There are other sections of the society which benefit from various measures taken by the government," he said. He explained that increase in minimum support price for food crops like paddy,wheat and sugarcane benefits millions of farmers. "Higher procurement prices will reflect in higher food prices. but higher procurement prices benefits millions of farmers. if you increase the price of sugarcane,sugar cannot be cheaper. if you increase the procurement price of wheat,paddy,rice the consumer cannot pay less," he said. Seeking to turn the table,he said people were prepared to pay Rs 15 for a bottle of water and Rs 20 for a cone icecream,but protest against rise in wheat and rice price. "You are prepared to pay Rs 15 for a bottle of water,but we will not pay a one rupee increase in the price of kilo rice or kilo wheat. We are prepared to pay 20 rupees for ice cream cone but we will not pay one rupee more for a kilo rice or kilo wheat," he said.
