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The Congress has reacted sharply to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s allegation that the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had left behind an “ailing economy”. Modi had said his government has to take “tough measures” to clear the mess.
Citing Gujarat government’s “Socio Economic Review” of 2013, Congress spokesperson Shakti Sinh Gohil said Modi had claimed that economic troubles in India were caused by “weaknesses in major developed economies”. The Gujarat government’s report in fact praises the “India, China and Brazil “for stroking the engine of global economy.”
Speaking to Bharatiya Janata Party workers in Goa, Modi had attempted to temper the high expectations of a magical economic turnaround from the new government. Modi told his audience that despite risking the government’s popularity, the finance minister would have to administer bitter medicine to restore fiscal health.
Modi had said, “I have taken over the reins of the country in circumstances when there is nothing left behind by the previous government. They left everything empty. The country's financial health has hit the bottom.”
Gohil listed the achievements of the UPA on the economic front, the average economic growth in its decade in power was 7.6 per cent while the previous NDA regime only witnessed 5.9 per cent. In the UPA’s ten-year rule, Gohil said foreign reserves rose as did the exports, the per capita income, and FDI flows. “The current account deficit under UPA-II narrowed down to 0.2 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product), therefore leaving a very healthy economy.”
“If the economic scenario under the UPA was bad, why did the Modi government laud the national economy in its yearly review,” asked Gohil.
“The BJP came to power at the Centre, attacking the UPA and price rise but the whole sale price inflation figures for May-end shows it has risen from 5.2 per cent in April.”
The Congress has alleged that Modi’s talk of “bitter pill” is indeed ironical.
