BJP blames UPA govt for economic slowdown

Wrong policies have affected growth rate

The BJP on Saturday hit out at the Centre for failing to control inflation and corruption, alleging that government’s “wrong” policies have affected the country’s growth rate and left its economy in a “mess”.

The economic resolution adopted unanimously at the party’s National Council meeting squarely blamed the ruling dispensation for the economic “mismanagement” and claimed it had negated the economic robustness that the UPA inherited from NDA in 2004.

“Inflation and corruption have become the hallmarks of the UPA government. The country also has to suffer the ignominy of experiencing economic downslide under the leadership of the economist prime minister under whom every economic macro-parameter has steadily declined,” the resolution said.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said though the UPA inherited a growth rate of 8.4 per cent from the NDA in 2004, the growth rate would be 4 to 4.5 per cent when it leaves power.

He regreted that even the low-cost economy nations are growing, India is not.
He said the country’s current growth is also due to the high growth rate reported by some NDA-ruled states and if their contribution is taken out, the country’s growth rate would be much less.

Moving the resolution, Prakash Javadekar said the government had failed to infuse confidence among investors and even domestic investors were not investing in the country.

“Instead of working towards a 10 per cent growth rate with 5 per cent inflation rate, in its nine-year tenure the UPA has achieved the exact opposite – a 10 per cent inflation rate and a 5 per cent growth rate.

“Even by conservative estimates, the mess of economic mismanagement under the Congress-led UPA government has taken the country many decades backward,” the resolution said. It added that the core sectors like coal, mining, power, fertiliser and natural gas are all in the negative zone. It highlighted the plight of farmers, saying more than 60 per cent of the population that depended on agriculture sector was in deep distress. Jaitley lamented that the contribution of the sector to GDP of the country was only 16 per cent.