After the government laid a White Paper on the Indian Economy in the Lok Sabha highlighting the lapses during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, Samajwadi Party (SP) ST Hasan claimed that it was going into history to hide its own ‘incompetence’.
“Step by step, the situation kept improving. Why are they going into history to hide their incompetence? The world is moving forward but you are used to going centuries behind… The world is reaching the sun today and you are still 500-1,000 years behind,” Hasan said.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman on Thursday laid a White Paper on Indian Economy in the Lok Sabha.
It states that when the BJP-led government came to power in 2014, the economy was in a fragile state, public finances were in bad shape, there was economic mismanagement and financial indiscipline, and there was widespread corruption.
“It was a crisis situation. The responsibility to mend the economy step by step and to put the governance systems in order was enormous. Our government refrained from bringing out a white paper on the poor state of affairs then. That would have given a negative narrative and shaken the confidence of all, including investors. The need of the hour was to give hope to the people, to attract investments, both domestic and global and to build support for the much-needed reforms,” the White Paper said.
It said the government believed in ‘nation-first’ and not in scoring political points.”Now that we have stabilised the economy and set it on a recovery and growth path, it is necessary to place in the public domain the seemingly insurmountable challenges – left behind as a legacy by the UPA Government,” the White Paper said.
“Every challenge of the pre-2014 era was overcome through our economic management and our governance. These have placed the country on a resolute path of sustained high growth. This has been possible through our right policies, true intentions, and appropriate decisions,” the document quoted Sitharaman as stating in this year’s budget speech.
The budget session started with the address by President Droupadi Murmu to the joint sitting of two Houses on January 31. This is the last session of the current Lok Sabha before the general elections expected to be held in April-May this year.