Union Minister Anurag Thakur claimed on Sunday that the Centre’s ‘White Paper’ on the Indian Economy, released in Parliament, had ‘exposed’ Congress.
He said, “The White Paper has exposed the Congress…Family was important for Congress. The policies of Congress have caused great harm to the country…”, ANI reported.
“The question arises: how did Congress keep looting the country? How did it keep pushing the country backward…We remained silent for the last 10 years in the interest of the country. If we had wanted, we could have brought the white paper earlier also,” he added.
The report, which was issued by the Ministry of Finance, effectively compares the 10-year record of economic governance under the Congress-led UPA governments (2004-05 and 2013-14) to the 10-year record of the BJP-led NDA governments (2014-15 and 2023-24).
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday accused the Congress-led UPA government of failing to leverage on the excellent economic climate that it inherited from the Vajpayee government and there was “ill-targeted, reckless fiscal policy, ill-targeted subsidies and wasteful expenditure for political gains”.
“Gur ko gobar karna Congress ki mastery hai (Congress is expert in frittering away advantage),” She remarked this in response to the Rajya Sabha debate on the White Paper on the Indian Economy. The paper compares ten years of the UPA government to ten years of the BJP-led government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
She stated that the administration delayed releasing the White Paper in order to minimize a negative impact on the economy in terms of investor mood as the “entire world was using the term ‘Fragile Five’ for our economy.”
“Today, when we are bringing the White Paper, it is because we have brought the economy to a certain level and that level gives us the confidence that we are able to now say that within the next few years, and that is why the PM keeps saying ‘In my third term surely the economy will reach third rank.’ This is not without reason,” she said.