Congress and Prime Minister must first explain, why it allowed economy to deteriorate for 1826 days before making false promise of reviving economy in 100 days. Slogan of 100 days is an admission of utter failure of the UPA Govt., on the economic front. The Govt. touted itself as having three economic wizards in Dr. Manmohan Singh, Dr. Chidambaram and Dr. Ahluwalia. Country witnessed all out failure of this economic trio. Congress and the PM fooled the people for five years but people have realised that the Govt. has betrayed them and hence are not going to fall pray to their 100 days slogan.
BJP wants to remind five cardinal sins of the UPA Govt., which made life of the common man miserable. First, its failure to tame the inflation on ground level is irritating the masses. Govt. figures of 0% inflation has become irrelevant and subject of ridicule as the prices of all essential commodities like rice, wheat, atta, pulses, edible oil, sugar, tea, cement are going up. Figures based on WPI have no connection to the ground reality. This Govt. allowed the situation to drift. There is cartelization in cement and the sugar prices are going up because of Govt’s wrong decisions. It allowed exports of sugar at 18 rupees per kg and even paid export subsidy. Within three months Govt. is now importing the sugar at 23 rupees per kg. This sugar scam will blow up in the face of UPA. Sweet sugar will become sour for Congress. In the first place Govt. could not hold the price line because of its utter failure in ensuring food security, streamlining PDS and monitoring the movement of prices in time.
Second, UPA precipitated the economic crisis by squeezing the liquidity out of market in face of evolving economic crisis globally. The credit crunch resulted in high interest rate regime, making Indian industries uncompetitive. Undeclared devaluation of rupee wiped out any possible profit for exporters. High interest rates and falling rupee hampered exports adversely and resulted in loss of jobs for millions. Govt. did not help the workers who lost jobs and made them fend for themselves.
Third, it did not keep the momentum in infrastructure development initiated by the NDA Govt. roads, irrigation, power generation and river linking suffered the most. Govt. engaged itself with cosmetic makeover and lost the opportunity to carry forward the momentum in development of infrastructure, which only ensures long term development.
Fourth, UPA made farmer suffer and never made any effort to correct the unfavorable balance of trade in face of steep rise in input prices of agriculture. PM’s package to heal the farmers, who were committing suicides failed miserably and suicides continued all over. Loan waiver scheme failed because it did not offer any benefit to 80% farmers and worst was that the scheme punished the honest. Anybody who has repaid even a single installment did not get any benefit from the scheme.
Fifth, the Govt. did away with fiscal discipline. The 2% target of fiscal deficit has gone awry. The unbudgeted items and the scale rose continuously making it the worst deficit regime. The total deficit is hovering around 15% and is much worse than 1991 financial crisis.
Congress and the Prime Minister have failed the nation and cannot expect people to forgive them. We once again challenge them for open debate on the state of economy.
