L K Advani, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, on Monday rapped Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram for not taking the nation into confidence as to how he would fulfill the gap of Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) that has been written off by the government to give relief to the poor and marginal farmers who have been committing suicide in various states of India.

"The finance minister did not clarify his position in the Budget Speech which he ought to have done. Then we came across statements from the finance minister that he intended to issue bonds for that amount to the banks for a period of three years," Advani said.

He told the House that Chidambaram was so upset with the aggressive questioning by a private television network that he decided to walk off not realizing that it was a live programme.

Advani claimed that the 9 per cent growth in the GDP as per the statement of the finance minister was possible because of the growth that took place during the NDA rule under the leadership of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

In the Rajya Sabha BJP president Rajnath Singh said that Sonia Gandhi had taken a dig at the NDA government and called it Mungeri Lal Ke Hasin Sapne when NDA government said that it had achieved growth target of 8 per cent. Now we have gone much beyond that."