The UPA “wasted” a decade in corruption and cronyism, while every crisis has been turned into an opportunity under the Narendra Modi government, as it believes in empowerment of all and appeasement of none, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in Lok Sabha on Thursday. Referring to Indira Gandhi’s slogan of “Garibi Hatao”, Sitharaman asked whether the Congress could actually remove poverty from India. “PM (Narendra) Modi has changed this completely. There is a transformation in our governance,” Sitharaman said while taking part in the discussion on the no-confidence motion. She said that instead of using words such as “milega” (will get), people now use the expression “mil gaya” (we have got it). “The UPA wasted a decade because of corruption and cronyism. Today, every crisis has been converted into an opportunity,” she said. “We are living in high growth and low inflation, while it was the other way around under the UPA.” Referring to the state of the Indian economy under UPA governments, Sitharaman cited a report and said, “In 2013, Morgan Stanley called India a fragile economy. The same Morgan Stanley has upgraded India — in just nine years…. There has been improvement despite the Covid-19 pandemic.” Lashing out at the Congress-led UPA, Sitharaman said a “mess” was created in the banking sector, which the Modi government had to clean.
