Written by: Express News Service
3 min readMumbaiJul 25, 2013 03:54 AM IST
First published on: Jul 25, 2013 at 03:54 AM IST
Mocking PM Manmohan Singh and his policies,Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday equated the “reputation” of a falling rupee and sinking credibility of the UPA government. “It is difficult to gauge whose reputation is falling faster,” Modi said.
“During independence,the value of a rupee was equivalent to a (US) dollar. Then during Atalji rule,the rupee stood at Rs 42 to a dollar. When Atalji left office,it was Rs 44 to a dollar,which is a difference of just 4%. But since our economist PM has taken charge,the rupee has sunk to Rs 60 a dollar. There seems to be a competition between the rupee and our government in Delhi,” Modi said,while addressing an award ceremony organised by a TV channel.
Modi also blamed the country’s first prime minister late Jawaharlal Nehru for the devaluation of the rupee. According to him,Nehru was the first to seek a loan from World Bank which was then under the control of the United States,and simultaneously also agreed to devalue the rupee as one of the pre-conditions for the same.
“Look at where we have reached due to such poor policy decisions,” Modi told the audience,which consisted of reputed market analysts and industry leaders like Mahindra Group CMD Anand Mahindra,Zydus Group CMD Pankaj Patel and others.
He also hit out on the UPA government for the “policy paralysis” that is dragging both the economy and the financial markets. “People have lost confidence in policy makers. Even if they have to decide on early polls,they need to take a decision. How can you expect decisions to be made by those who haven’t taken any in the last nine years,” Modi said.
During his speech,Modi also repeatedly brought out the positives in governance during the NDA regime. “The NDA had built a strong foundation,but this government has only created new debts and burden,” Modi said,adding that 20,000 MW of power generation capacity was lying idle in the country just because of policy paralysis of the government. He also criticised the UPA government for failing to control the high current account deficit and rising imports and inflation.
Modi,however,did not forget to showcase his own work. “When I took over the reins in Gujarat,the state had a revenue deficit of Rs 6,700 crore. Today,we are revenue surplus,” Modi said.
Share
