A day after Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid blamed media for misinterpreting his statement on leadership issue in the Congress it was his Cabinet colleague P. Chidambaram’s turn to accuse the media of doing the same. The home minister was “shocked and disgusted by the deliberate distortion” of his statement given in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Chidambaram’s office on Wednesday issued a press statement clarifying his stand on the report in a leading daily denying that he ever took a dig at the middle class people. Under attack for his alleged jibe at the middle class, the home minister cried foul, saying he “did not ‘mock’ or ‘chide’ any one”.

“The home minister made a matter-of-fact statement. He did not ‘mock’ or ‘hide’ any one. If the interview is viewed, it will be seen that he spoke in a matter-of-fact manner.

The home minister used the word ‘we’. He did not use the words ‘why do they make so much noise about price rise’. He did not say ‘there need not be any complaint for price rise when things are on the side of poor farmers’. The report is therefore a complete distortion of his statements,” the statement read.

Chidambaram comes under attack

Earlier, the parties — both opposition and allies — ganged up against Chidambaram, who is being widely believed to be the next finance minister. The BJP led the attack claiming Chidambaram’s record as finance minister was dismal.

Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha said, “He is the worst finance minister that this country has seen because he enjoyed the fruits of the effort that we had put in.”

“He completely wasted the golden opportunity that he had when he presented the budget of 2008-2009 and allowed the deficit to rise from 2.5 per cent to over 6.7 per cent. He is really guilty of wasting the opportunities that he had four years ago,” the BJP leader said.

Congress’s ally Samajwadi Party (SP) also slammed Chidambaram saying he did not understand the problems of common people.

SP leader Shahid Siddiqui said, “The French queen on being said that people don’t have bread to eat, said let them eat cake, and that brought out the biggest revolution – the French revolution. And, if such a leader makes such statements people will become violent.”

“Seeing his comments, if he becomes finance minister then only God will help. The way prices are rising, people will come on streets if it is not curbed,” he added.