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NATION FEBRUARY 16, 2024 | The Indian Eye 8

From ‘Fragile’ to ‘Powerful’: How BJP plans to

take its White Paper on economy to the masses

Former Finance Minister Chidambaram says the “white paper” is intended to

“whitewash” the sins and commissions of the Narendra Modi government

OUR BUREAU
New Delhi

aking its ‘White Paper’ over
the alleged fiscal mismanage-
Tment under the Congress-led
UPA during its 10-year rule at the
Centre, the BJP will present the re-
port in every state, underscoring how
the previous ruling coalition alleged-
ly inflicted fiscal woes on the country
and indulged in corruption.
Atop source in the BJP said
the state leaders will take the Cen-
tre’s ‘White Paper’ against the Con-
gress-led UPA to the people through
press conferences, nukkad sabhas
and other forums as the Lok Sabha
polls near. The source added that
the BJP has firmed its strategy and
electoral roadmap for the high-stakes
Lok Sabha polls.
Amid the ongoing Budget Ses-
sion of Parliament, Union Finance
Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on
Thursday presented a ‘White Paper’ Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Anil Baluni at the Parliament House
on the state of the national econo- during the Budget Session in New Delhi (ANI)
my during the UPA years in the Lok
Sabha.
In its ‘White Paper’, the BJP-led moved substitute motions under today the highest capital investment the government is a hatchet job. It is
NDA stated that when the BJP-led rule 342 of the rules of procedure has taken place in India. “What in- a white-lie paper. Even the authors
government came to power in 2014, and conduct of business, saying the heritance did we get and what did will not claim that it is an academic,
the economy was in a fragile state, House disapproves the contents of we do? ‘We have brought the boat well-researched or scholarly paper,”
public finances were in bad shape, the White Paper. out of the storm.’ India has changed Chidambaram said in a statement.
there was economic mismanagement During her speech, Sitharaman from ‘fragile five’ to ‘powerful five’. Chidambaram said that the white
and financial indiscipline, and there said, “Two examples should be taken. What we did was that the economy paper is a “political exercise” to hide
was widespread corruption. The near- The global financial crisis after 2008 that Congress had left at number 11, the Narendra Modi government’s
ly 60-page ‘White Paper’ stated fur- wasn’t as serious as COVID-19. Still, we brought to the fifth largest econo- “broken promises”. “It is a political
ther that the banking crisis was “one I would want to say that it was a cri- my and very soon we will make it the exercise intended to damn the previ-
of the most important and infamous sis and the government should have third largest in the world. We made ous government and hide the present
legacies of the UPA government”. handled it with sincerity and trans- the law of Aadhaar and connected government’s broken promises, mon-
Further, the paper mentioned parency.” Jan-Dhan, sent almost 44 lakh crores umental failures and betrayal of the
that the current government believed Also, launching a scathing attack of rupees to accounts and also saved poor,” he said.
in ‘nation-first’ and not in scoring po- at Congress during the debate on the 3 lakh crores, this is Digital India. To- A fair and unbiased assessment
litical points. ‘White Paper’ brought by the NDA day India is number one in UPI pay- of any period will not start arbitrarily
Stressing that the global finan- government in the Lok Sabha, Bhara- ments. When we were in opposition with 2004 and end abruptly in 2014.
cial crisis in 2008 wasn’t as serious as tiya Janata Party MP Ravi Shankar in the old House, a new scam kept It would have assessed a reasonable
the COVID-19 pandemic, Union Fi- Prasad on Friday stated that the UPA opening every week. If you commit period before 2004 and included a
nance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman government handed over fragile scams, we will not leave you,” he said. reasonable period after 2014, Chid-
on Friday said that the then Con- economy to the BJP government in Former Finance Minister P Chi- ambaram said.
gress-led UPA government should 2014 and in 10 years the Modi gov- dambaram referred to the white pa- The former Finance Minister
have handled it with sincerity and ernment transformed it into “power- per presented on the Indian economy said that the “white paper” is intend-
transparency. ful five”. in Parliament as a “white-lie paper” ed to “whitewash” the sins and com-
But NK Premachandran of During his address in the Lok and a “hatchet job”. missions of the Narendra Modi gov-
Congress and Saugata Roy of TMC Sabha, Ravi Shankar Prasad said that “The White Paper put out by ernment in the past 10 years.

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