Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 9 February laid the ‘White Paper’ in Lok Sabha and called it is a statement laid with responsibility. While speaking in the Lok Sabha, the Finance Minister said, “White Paper’ has been laid on the table by the government, after 10 years of pulling out an Indian Economy which was in fragile five to reach the stage of top five. It is a statement laid with responsibility…”. The White Paper alleged that the UPA government abandoned reforms after coming to power in 2004 and that it failed to build on the strong foundation laid by the previous BJP-led NDA government.
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During her speech, Sitharaman said, “(The) 10 years of one government with some crises and 10 years of a different government with a different crisis, the comparison shown in this paper clearly says how if the government handles it with true sincerity, transparency and putting the nation first, the results are there for everybody to see.”
“India suffered a huge loss because of the Coal Scam at the hands of the UPA govt,” FM said. She said that the UPA government converted “coal into ash but we converted into diamonds”.
Further lashing out at UPA-led by the Congress party, the union finance minister, “They did not put the nation first, left the economy in tatters by putting family first”.
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She said the Modi government pulled the economy out of the ‘fragile five’ and brought it among the top five global economies.
The FM said that the Congress party has no right to lecture on the Modi government’s dedication to economic management during Covid as they failed to handle the 2008 global financial crisis.
“Two examples should be taken. The global financial crisis after 2008 wasn’t as serious as COVID-19. Still, I would want to say that it was a crisis and the government should have handled it with sincerity and transparency,” Sitharaman said.
She said during the global financial crisis, whatever should have been done to protect India’s interest, was not done.
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“But even after that, scandals continued, leaving the country in such a critical state. God only knows, if the government had continued, what would have been the condition of this country today,” the Finance Minister said.
Further Sitharaman highlighted coal scam during UPa government, and said, “The coal scam shook the conscience of the nation in 2014. Before 2014, the allocation of coal blocks was done on an arbitrary basis without following a transparent process to allocate the blocks. The coal sector was excluded from competition and transparency and the sector lacked investments and efficiencies. These actions were scrutinised by investigation agencies, and in 2014, the Supreme Court of India cancelled the allocation of 204 coal mines/blocks allocated since 1993″.
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Published: 09 Feb 2024, 12:36 PM IST
