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Arun Jaitley, leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, today said the dream team of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) had turned the India story into a ‘nightmare’. He blamed Finance Minister P Chidambaram for growth slipping below 5%.
“Chidambaram believes he is a principal repository of all economic wisdom. It is a different matter that he along with the other members of the UPA’s dream team has presented to the country not a dream but a nightmare,” Jaitley said.
The dream team is considered to comprise of Chidambaram, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
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Jaitley, a former commerce minister during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure, was responding to Chidambaram’s statement that the amount of knowledge that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi knew could be written on the back of a postal stamp.
Defending Modi, who is also the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate, Jaitley said though Modi does not claim to be an economist, he has transformed Gujarat into an industrial hub of the country.
“Modi has demonstrated his clarity and effectiveness in generating and expediting economic activity in Gujarat. His ability does not require certification of Chidambaram,” Jaitley said.
The BJP today also criticised the UPA for ignoring the minorities. Reacting to today’s speech of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the inauguration of the National Waqf Development Corporation which saw disruptions, the BJP said it only showed the dissatisfaction of the minorities with the Congress.
“We want to ask this government who is responsible for the present condition of the minorities. The Congress which has ruled for 56 years, or the BJP which has ruled for six years,” said party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi.
The inauguration ceremony of the Waqf Board was disrupted after a member of the audience got up and complained of non-functioning of schemes which were targeted towards the minorities. At that time, apart from Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Minority Affairs Minister K Rahman Khan were present on the stage.
The BJP said the UPA government had sat on most recommendations of the Justice Sachar committee. Quoting from a Parliamentary Standing Committee report, the party said 30% of the funds allocated to the Ministry of Minority Affairs were not utilised in the last financial year.
