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Former finance minister P Chidambaram on Monday tore into the Modi government’s handling of the economy, saying it is close to collapse and was being attended by “very incompetent doctors”.

Initiating the debate on the Union Budget for 2020-21 in Rajya Sabha, he said rising unemployment and falling consumption was making India poorer.

The economy, he said, is facing demand constraints and is investment-starved. The economy is facing a fall in consumption and rising unemployment.

“Fear and uncertainty prevail in the country,” he added.

He said the chief economic advisor to the BJP government for four years, Arvind Subramanian, has stated that the economy is in the ICU. But “I would say the patient has been kept out of the ICU and incompetent doctors are seeing the patient,” Chidambaram said.