Congress leader and former Union finance minister P Chidambaram mounted an unprecedented attack on the Centre on Thursday over the economic slowdown and questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "unusual silence" on the issue.

Chidambaram, who was released on bail on Wednesday after spending 106 days in jail, said Modi's silence had left his ministers to indulge in "bluff and bluster".

The Supreme Court granted bail to the former finance minister in the INX Media case on Wednesday.

"I am happy to be back. The government cannot suppress my voice in Parliament," he said.

At the beginning of his press conference, Chidambaram said his first thoughts upon his release were with the Kashmiri people who "have been denied their basic freedoms since August 4, 2019."

"I intend to visit Jammu and Kashmir if the government allows me to do so," he said.

Focusing primarily on the state of the economy, Chidambaram said the BJP government believed that the problems faced by the economy were cyclical even after seven months into the current financial year.

"The government is wrong. It is wrong because it is clueless," he said.

"It is unable to look for the obvious clues because it is stubborn and mulish in defending its catastrophic mistakes like demonetisation, flawed GST, tax terrorism, regulatory overkill, protectionism, and centralised control of decision-making in the Prime Minister's Office."

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When the former finance minister arrived in Parliament, he quipped, "Does she eat avocado?", when asked to comment on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's comment that her family didn't eat onion much.

Speaking at a press conference later, Chidambaram said that his comments on the finance minister were not "sarcastic".

"I was not sarcastic, I was quoting her. They should have planned in advance, what is the point of importing (onion) now, when will they arrive. But if the finance minister says I don't eat onions, that shows the mindset of this government," he said.

In Pictures: Chidambaram protests against government’s economic policies

On Wednesday when asked by an MP if she ate onions, Sitharaman had said, "I belong to a family which does not eat onion and garlic."

The government had on Wednesday said that the state-run trading firm MMTC has placed another onion import order of 4,000 tonnes from Turkey and the shipments are expected to reach by mid-January.

This is in addition to 17,090 tonnes of onions already contracted, which includes 6,090 tonnes from Egypt and 11,000 tonnes from Turkey, it said in a statement.

Asked about industrialist Rahul Bajaj, who had asked Union Home Minister Amit Shah if people were scared to criticize the government, Chidambaram said, "There is fear everywhere. Media also gripped with fear."

He said if the government believed that the Gandhi family did not require SPG protection, "then that is a cross the government has to bear".

(With PTI inputs)