EDITORIAL
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday tabled a ‘white paper’ on the Indian economy claiming that the UPA government led by Dr Manmohan Singh inherited a healthy economy ready for more reforms but made it non-performing in 10 years.
The white paper stated that double-digit inflation prevailed during the UPA government and the country’s banking sector ailed. The other macroeconomic parameters also reflected the poor state of economy which dented India’s image and shook investor confidence.
The White Paper claimed that the UPA Government in its quest to maintain high economic growth severely undermined the macroeconomic foundations. “One such foundation that was severely weakened by the UPA government was price stability. Inflation raged between 2009 and 2014 and the common man bore the brunt,” it said.
The White Paper said that the banking crisis was one of the most important and infamous legacies of the UPA government. It stated that in an era where capital flows dominate, India’s external vulnerability shot up because of over-dependence on external commercial borrowings (ECB).
The white paper presented in Lok Sabha ahead of general elections said that the UPA government’s response to the 2008 global financial crisis – a fiscal stimulus package to combat the spill-over effects – was much worse than the problem it sought to address.
The white paper said that the decade of the UPA Government was a lost decade because it failed to capitalise on the strong foundational economy and pace of reforms left behind by the Vajpayee government.
The White Paper also talked about ‘pervasive corruption in various government activities, including in procurement, allocation of natural resources, and regulatory approvals.’ The White Paper further said that as soon as the Modi government took over in 2014 India was put on the path of development by overhauling systems and processes. Interestingly, Congress party has come out with a ‘Black paper’ listing ‘injustices meted out to people during the last 10 years of the Modi government
