"My mother and Harvard taught me the value of hard work."


"I don't want to take the level of this debate to a Class 8 school boys' debate,"

P. Chidambaram speaking on criticism of interim budget by Narendra Modi.

"Going to Harvard means nothing. What matters is hard work....A man who has just studied in an ordinary school, sold tea and has not even seen the doors of Harvard has shown what it takes to handle economy.

"Gujarat has shown an average growth of 10.1 percent for the last ten years while the national average has been 7.6 under UPA and it has fallen to 4.5 in the last two years,"

"The Recount Minister has been using foul language against me for quite sometime now. I have been maintaining silence because the more mud you throw, lotus will blossom all the more,"

"He behaves as if he was the first in the queue when God was distributing intelligence,"

Narendra Modi Saturday on Finance Minister P Chidambaram addressing a Public Meeting at Vandalur near Chennai

"If we get our act together and utilise these resources, human and material, invest wisely and efficiently, there is no reason why (India) should not grow at sustained pace of 8-9 percent over the next 10, 20, 30 years. Thats the opportunity available to you,"

Finance Minister P Chidambaram addressing students of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC)

(India has managed to clock an average growth of 8.5 percent between 2004 and 2009, but slipped to 7.2-7.3 per cent in the next four years due to global and domestic reasons.)

"What he (Narendra Modi) knows about economics can be written on the back of a postage stamp,"  

Chidambaram said in an interview to BBC.

"I am confident that by the end of this (financial) year we will be able to revisit some of the restrictions on gold import but we will do so only when we are absolutely sure that we have a firm grip on the current account deficit,"

FM P Chidambaram while addressing tax officials at the Customs Day