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BJP ‘chargesheets’ UPA, terms its rule a disasterRavi S. Singh
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 4Tribune News Service
Taking a broad sweep at the alleged acts of omission and commissions of the UPA government, the BJP on Friday presented a chargesheet on its 10-year rule which it described as an “endless saga of scam and corruption”.
The party picked holes in the government's economic policies and alleged the UPA destroyed all engines of growth. Though the UPA inherited robust growth rate of 8.5 per cent from the NDA, growth has nosedived to 4.5 per cent because of UPA mismanagement, corruption and bad governance, said the document. Releasing the 58-page document, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the intention behind the document was to remind the public that it should have no expectation from the Congress-led UPA government in the future.
The chargesheet, which is in the form of a booklet, criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for “devaluing” his high office. “Dr Manmohan Singh worked more like the CEO of a company where the board was headed by Sonia Gandhi with Rahul Gandhi as her deputy. Dr Singh made compromises to remain in office and one does not come across a single case where he made any decisive intervention to contain the loot of public money in a series of scams that became the defining feature of this the most-corrupt government since Independence.”
Slamming the UPA government for failure to control prices and low infrastructural growth, including national highway projects, the chargesheet said the entire infrastructure suffered because of corruption, indecision and policy paralysis.
It termed rising unemployment as the UPA’s biggest failure. Citing the National Sample Survey data, it said 6.07 crore jobs were created in NDA’s six years (between 1999-2000 and 2005-05) while only 1.54 crore jobs were generated in eight years of UPA rule (between 2004-05 and 2011-12). “A good number of jobs were created during the NDA regime in the manufacturing and services sector while the same has slumped into the negative in the UPA regime. The NDA generated 1.21 crore jobs every year, which came down to 22 lakh per year during UPA rule,” it added. Highlighting that the government failed to address problems of poverty, it listed major scams that occurred during UPA rule. These include 2G spectrum, coal, IGI Airport land grant, Air India, rotten food, Hasan Ali money laundering, ISRO-Devas, defence land and LIC housing loan scams.
On security, it highlighted the over-500 reported incidents of border violations by the Chinese. “The government failed to assess the military implications and take steps to shore up India’s defences,” it said.
PM, Sonia, Rahul in firing line
- The 58-page document highlights the "failures" of the UPA on various fronts, including unkept promises made in 2009
- It accuses the Congress leadership of a "deliberate, conscious devaluation" of the Prime Minister’s office by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi where Manmohan Singh acted more like a CEO of a board they controlled
- Slamming UPA's economic policy, the BJP said the government destroyed the economy where inflation is uncontrolled, growth rate is declining and unemployment is going up
Amid the controversy over the reasons for the embarrassing delay in releasing its manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party today repaid the ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance in the same measure it received a decade ago — a chargesheet.
With just two days left for the first vote to be cast to elect members of the 16th Lok Sabha, the BJP today summarised the 10-year reign of the UPA government as a “a dark decade in governance”, seeking to respond to the decade-old missive by the Congress against the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government in 2004 through a booklet “Vajpayee government — A saga of sins, scams and shame”.
Interestingly, there are many similarities in the accusations that the Congress made then and charges levelled by the BJP today. Despite the passage of 10 years, some issues remain the same — scams, corruption, lack of governance and management of agriculture, economy, defence and security and undermining of institutions besides mention of a son-in-law.
If the Congress then accused the foster son-in-law of the then Prime Minister Vajpayee and his “influence” in decision-making, the BJP document talks of the son-in-law of Congress president and his acquisition of lands resulting in “windfall gains”.
The list of scams then hovered around defence deals, UTI, allotment of plots, petrol pumps and gas agencies, Bangaru Laxman and Dilip Judeo, among others. A decade later, the narrative is around 2G, Commonwealth Games, defence land and helicopter, Tatra truck deals and railway bribery among others. As for institutions, both parties attacked the other of undermining the CAG and JPC on different counts.
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