 "Amit Shah, BJP meet")
Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday expressed confidence there will be a transformation in the lives of the poor as it reached out to people ahead of next year's UP assembly election in and credited the Modi government for making India a bright spot despite the global economic slowdown.
In an economic resolution passed at its national executive meeting in Allahabad, the party claimed that India under the exceptional leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emerged as the fastest growing economy and trained guns on the previous Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments for leaving behind a very bad economy.
The resolution said Economic experts, think tanks, multilateral institutions and reputed media have acknowledged India's growth story and hailed various schemes and initiatives of the government.
"This is not just by chance, but due to extensive and persistent efforts by the Modi government and its prudent policies. After inheriting a mismanaged economy from the previous government of UPA, the task of the new government was two-fold. First it had to undo the bad effects of the previous government including policy paralysis, mis-governance and corruption and secondly to make the economy embark on the path of development," the resolution said.
It claimed that under the UPA government international community had started writing off India, terming it as a laggard economy and that the last two years of the dispensation were the worst from the point of view of the industry, infrastructure, price stability (inflation), health of banking sector, external sector imbalances and fiscal management.
Contrasting it with the performance of Modi government, the resolution said India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had grown 7.2% in 2014-15 and 7.6% in 2015-16.
"It is significant to note that last quarter witnessed GDP growth rate of 7.9%. Despite severe resource constraints, we could achieve fiscal deficit of 4.1% and 3.9% in the year 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively. Also, better supply management and control on fiscal deficit has resulted in control of inflation," it further added.
"India received an unprecedented amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2015 and this has helped us in increasing surplus in balance of payment on capital account. This coupled with surplus in balance of payment on current account recorded in the third quarter of 2015-16," the resolution said.
Alleging that it inherited a mismanaged economy from UPA, the party said in the year 2011-12, the GDP growth had slowed down to 6.5% while industrial growth that year had decelerated to merely 2.9%, which further declined.
"Fiscal deficit approached 6% of GDP and rupee depreciated fast. During UPA regime, about 14 lakh crore rupees worth of funds got locked up due to wrong policies. RBI's (Reserve Bank of India) Financial Stability Report, December 2015 showed that the PSU (Public Sector Units) banks were in a very bad shape. Crony capitalists succeeded in influencing the decision making process. Whether it was telecom or coal or any other field, there was complete policy paralysis," the resolution alleged.
Comparing India's growth vis-a-vis the slowdown in other countries, the Indian economy has been posting higher growth and has emerged as the fastest growing economy of the world, it said.
"Inflation was kept at reasonable levels through judicious fiscal management strategies. Tax reform measures, bankruptcy law etc were introduced. The government also assured that it would not engage in retrospective amendments. The trust of investors increased manifold due to increased transparency and accountability in governance, scam free administration and prudent fiscal management policies. It improved ease of doing business, which attracted more investments," the resolution informed.
Noting that a qualitative change in the tax system is expected through the introduction of Goods and Services Tax, the resolution noted that it has been pending due to obstructionist politics of the Congress and a few other parties.
Claiming that appropriate blending of welfare and growth measures is the hallmark of the National Democratic Alliance government's governance model, the resolution said the first two years of the Modi government have been marked by significant measures to alleviate poverty and deprivation, enable socio-economic empowerment of the marginalised sections and lay a robust foundation for economic progress.
The National Executive expressed the confidence that due to the efforts of the central government under Modi's leadership, the economy will continue to grow and with the social equality and economic empowerment there will be a transformation in the lives of the poor.
