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Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that continued and sustained efforts and effective policy initiatives have brought the Indian economy back on track resulting in it becoming the fifth-largest economy in the world.
She asserted that India will become the third largest economy in the third term of Modi government. She was replying to the discussion on White Paper on the Indian Economy in the Rajya Sabha.
The Finance Minister said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally monitors progress of development projects at the grass root level. Pointing towards the economic mismanagement during the UPA government, she said, projects worth 18 lakh crore rupees were stalled during the previous regime. She said, this government approved 348 pending projects worth over 17 lakh crore rupees in the past few years. She criticized the UPA government for not transferring the benefits to people. She also alleged that central agencies like CBI and ED were misused by the UPA during its regime. On the inflation front, the Finance Minister pointed out that during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government the inflation rate was below 4 percent while the average rate of inflation reached 8.2 percent during the UPA rule. She said, ill targeted reckless fiscal policies, subsidies, and wasteful expenditure were done for political gains by the UPA government. She also criticized the UPA for ignoring the aspirations of North Eastern states by side-lining the infrastructure needs.
Earlier, initiating the discussion, Sushil Modi of BJP highlighted irregularities and scams during the UPA rule and involvement of Congress leaders. He asserted that no charges of corruption have been levelled against the Narendra Modi government in the last ten years. Mr Modi said, the banking sector was adversely affected due to wrong policies of the UPA, despite being given a strong foundation by Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. He said, today under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country is in the Golden Era of banking. The BJP MP highlighted several welfare measures taken by the government for the welfare of the people.
KC Venugopal of Congress alleged that the White paper hides the dark truth of the economic situation in the country. He questioned why the government has not mentioned anything on the impact of demonetisation in the White Paper and the black money brought back to the country. He said, the MSME sector was badly affected by the ill effect of demonetisation. Saket Gokhale of Trinamool Congress said, the government promised to provide two crore jobs every year, but only reportedly created 2.7 crore jobs in the last five years. Later, TMC members staged a walkout protesting the White Paper. Tiruchi Siva of DMK questioned the government on the issue of note ban and lockdown during Covid pandemic saying hundreds of people died due to wrong policies of the government. He alleged that the budgetary support for the agriculture sector has reduced. He also said non-profit-making PSUs are being disinvested which is not good for the economy.