FM: Decisions of Sonia-led panel ruined economy

Ajay Banerjee &

Animesh Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 9

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, speaking in the Lok Sabha on Friday, attacked Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, calling the National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by her an “unconstitutional” body which took decisions that “ruined the economy” during the UPA regime.

She apportioned blame on Sonia and her MP son Rahul Gandhi for pressuring then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Sitharaman was replying to a motion to discuss the “White paper on Indian economy and its impact on the lives of people” in the Lok Sabha. The House adopted the motion by a voice vote.

“Sonia was an extra-constitutional and unaccountable person who oversaw this mismanagement as we joined the fragile five economies,” Sitharaman alleged, adding, “The governance was under pressure of this extra-constitutional authority. The NAC okayed 710 files. What authority did it have? It was worse than a kitchen cabinet. While Manmohan was abroad, an ordinance was torn up (by Rahul) insulting their own PM.”

“The UPA regime always put family first and left the country in dire straits. It took us 10 years of dedicated effort to get the economy back on rails. Nothing in this white paper is baseless,” she added.

The minister accused the UPA of ignoring the national security while the environment ministry had become a bottleneck. “There was a critical shortage of military equipment. India had a policy to not develop border areas. We brought down environmental approvals from 316 days to 70 days. You wanted the public distribution system scrapped. We restored it,” the minister said.

From 2005-14, only 102 cases under the PMLA reached the level of prosecution. “We gave independence to the ED and asked them to stop money laundering. Following this, 1,200 cases reached the prosecution stage,” she said.

Earlier, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury called the white paper a “granary of concoctions and a mountain of lies”.

He said in 1947, the per capita income was Rs 247 and in 2011, it rose to Rs 64,361. “Poverty reduced from 65 per cent in 1947 to 27 per cent in 2011-12. Life expectancy improved and literacy rates grew. It was the Congress which brought the green revolution, land reforms and created IITs and IIMs,” he added.

NK Premachandran from the Left party RSP, who was invited for lunch with the PM today, rejected the white paper, saying “these are baseless allegations”.

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