The Congress on Friday termed the Modi government's white paper on the economy a "white lie paper", and said it should have come out with a document on issues such as unemployment, border tensions and Manipur instead.
The government's white paper criticises the Congress-led UPA rule, saying it had turned the Indian economy into a non-performing one through indiscriminate revenue expenditure, off budget borrowings and a pile of bad debts at banks.
Terming the document a "hatchet job", senior Congress leader and former Finance minister P Chidambaram said in a statement, "It is a white-lie paper. Even the authors will not claim that it is an academic, well-researched or scholarly paper.
"It is a political exercise intended to damn the previous government and hide the present government's broken promises, monumental failures and betrayal of the poor." He said a fair and unbiased assessment of any period will not start arbitrarily with 2004 and end abruptly in 2014.
"The paper released today is not a white paper; it is a paper that is intended to whitewash the many sins and commissions of the NDA government in the last 10 years," he said.
Chidambaram said the appropriate answer to the so-called white paper is the hard-hitting document titled "10 Saal, Anyay Kaal, 2014-2024".
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh echoed his colleague and said the the answer to the 'white lie paper' lies in the "10 Saal, Anyay Kaal..." document released by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
"The black paper was a surgical strike on the white paper," he said "The white paper (of the government) makes no mention of demonetisation, unemployment, inflation, and the rising economic disparity. The issues on which they should come out with a white paper is the border situation with China, border tensions... we have been demanding a white paper on that, they are silent on that," Ramesh told reporters outside Parliament.
He said the Congress has also been demanding a white paper on Manipur but the government had been silent on the matter.
"We had earlier asked for a white paper on demonetisation but they were silent on that also. There is no white paper on the 45-year high unemployment in the country....The white paper is yet another event. He (Modi) is an event manager as (L K) Advani ji had said," Ramesh said.
The government is "silent" on corruption and real issues like injustice to farmers, women and youth, he alleged.
"The PSUs are being sold to one or two of his friends," Ramesh alleged.
He also said ports, airports, railway, factories, oil refineries are being privatised.
Ramesh alleged that no government had made "wild promises" on assuming office as the Narendra Modi government had and then broken them without an expression of regret.
"In fact, the government laughed them away as election jumlas," he said, referring to promises, including two crore jobs a year, bringing back black money stashed abroad, Rs 15 lakh to every bank account, giving petrol, diesel at Rs 35 a litre and doubling of farmers' incomes.
In 2004, he said the UPA government had inherited an economy that had performed at a below-average rate in the previous six years.
"Yet, the Vajpayee government called the moment ‘India Shining'. The slogan recoiled on the government. The BJP-government suffered an ignominious defeat. The authors of the white-lie paper may realise that history has a way of repeating itself," the former minister noted.
Fiscal deficit, he said, was 4.5 per cent during UPA and 5.8 per cent during NDA, while household saving as percentage of GDP was 23 per cent under UPA and 19 per cent under NDA.
The Congress had alleged on Thursday that the government's white paper on the country's economy under the UPA rule is aimed at hiding "the dark truth" and said hunger, price rise, unemployment and abject poverty are a lived reality for a vast majority of Indians under the Modi government.
Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi alleged on Friday that the BJP-led Centre is an "expert in event management" and claimed that the "white paper" brought by it on the country's economy during the UPA rule was an "election stunt".
Participating in a debate in the Lok Sabha on the "white paper" presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman comparing the state of the economy during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regimes, the MP from Assam's Kaliabor accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of sheltering corrupt people and misusing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to target the opposition.
"This government is an expert in event management. An example that we have seen today is that the white paper is not a white paper but an election stunt, an election drama. It is an attempt to hide the government's repeated failures, it is a conspiracy, but people are not going to fall into this trap. They do not trust the white paper, even their party members do not trust it.... That is why there was no quorum today and people went outside," Gogoi said.
"Because these facts have not been proved, not verified ... they take rumours to people again and again. They have accused us of corruption.... The way they have been working for 10 years, they have sheltered corrupt people. How are they saying 'na khaunga na khane dunga' when whoever is corrupt joins the BJP and they welcome them," he added.
The Congress leader alleged that the ED has become a part of the BJP and is being misused for "politically-motivated raids".
"The ED has become a part of the BJP. It is being misused.... It is being used to scuttle the voices of democracy and opposition. It is a tool to welcome the corrupt in the party. A Supreme Court affidavit says a clear trend of using ED raids as a tool of harassment has been indicated.... The action rate of the raids from 2005 to 2014 was 93 per cent, which has now been reduced to 29 per cent.
"Only 23 convictions under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) have been secured.... Why is the conviction rate so low? Because these raids are motivated. The ED is not arresting economic offenders hiding in foreign countries," he said.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Saugata Roy alleged that there has not been a bigger scam than demonetisation and said the finance minister should apologise to the country for the same.
"Before bringing such a white paper, the finance minister should have apologised to the country for demonetisation.... A scam of this magnitude has not happened in history.... They (BJP) used to say that black money will be brought back.
"Hundred and fifty crore people struggled standing in queues and now, they are making tall claims.... If they are against corruption, where are the economic offenders hiding abroad? You have a law for fugitive economic offenders, then why are they not being brought back?" Roy asked.
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