The United Progressive Alliance government was indulging in gross mismanagement of the economy. It has sought to manage the economy mainly on foreign investment which, by nature, was fragile, the BJP alleged on Wednesday.
In a statement here, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad said the constant refrain of the UPA government was that the fundamentals of the economy were strong but they were not so. The growth rate was at an all-time low in the last 10 years.
“The rupee has registered a sharp fall against the dollar. Between May and July 9, it has depreciated from Rs. 53 to 60.15. Apart from seriously hurting the national pride, this drastic fall is directly related to the gross mismanagement of the economy,” Mr. Prasad said.
“The excessive dependence on uncertain foreign investment has created complications. If foreign money can come easily, it also goes swiftly. In the wake of U.S. crisis of 2008-09, a stimulus package of about $85 billion was announced by the government there. Naturally, a part of this also came to India. Now we are informed that the U.S. Federal Reserve has decided to withdraw this stimulus. As a consequence, a lot of this money is going out of India impacting the rupee further,” he noted.
Mr. Prasad said any sound economy must depend upon robust domestic investment and savings. These become pillars of strength to sustain the economy. However, the hard fact was that Indians were not investing in India because atmosphere was not conducive. There was corruption, indecision, overwhelming uncertainties and policy paralysis. Except inflation and fiscal deficit, all other parameters of the economy from import-export, infrastructure development, manufacturing to industrial development all were down.
The BJP leader said the UPA government had benefitted initially from a “very sound economy left by the NDA government,” but subsequently by its own mismanagement and corruption, it completely destroyed it.
