Opp calls BJP’s White Paper political manifesto aimed at scoring electoral brownie point

“It is nothing but an electoral manifesto with an objective of scoring electoral brownie point that has prompted you to bring this kind of White Paper,” Chowdhury said.

He slammed the BJP for targeting the Gandhi family and former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

“What gain do you derive from abusing a family and Nehru in every matter?…How would you have felt if another party comes to power and that party abused Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Modi ji? Would you like that? We do not want that to happen,” he said, adding that the Congress never speaks against former PM Vajpayee.

Congress MP Manish Tewari called the White Paper a “political manifesto” and a “black brush” of the government. He said the UPA-enacted Acts such as the Right to Information, Right to Education, Right to Food, and MGNREGA strengthened the social, political, and economic foundation of the country.

DMK member V Kalanidhi said the Modi government in 2014 had made poll promises such as two crore jobs every year, reducing petrol and gas prices by half. “After 10 years, you are submitting a White Paper where there is no mention about any of these things. This White Paper has no mention about demonetisation, its effects and what did it achieve,” Kalanidhi said.

Calling demonetisation the biggest scam in history, Trinamool Congress member Saugata Roy said the finance minister should first apologise to the nation for demonetisation. Praising the UPA government for its schemes, Roy said, “I am not saying that all was good in the UPA. But UPA implemented MGNREGA for poor, the food security Act, RTI, Aadhaar.” He asked the government, “You show (me) what big step you have taken for (the) poor. Economic reforms have been stopped.”

IUML member ET Mohammed Basheer said the White Paper was actually the “paper for the BJP, by the BJP, of the BJP and for the election of the BJP.”

AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi said that under the UPA government, the average GDP growth rate was 6.8 per cent but it dipped to an average of 5.9 per cent during Modi’s term.

“Who is responsible for this — China or Pakistan? This White Paper is more rhetoric than substance. Demonetisation ruined the poor but it is not mentioned in the White Paper,” he said.

Owaisi demanded the government to issue a White Paper on how many Muslims were lynched between 2014 and 2024 by mobs starting from Mohammed Akhlaq in Dadri, on how many houses were bulldozed, and on whether China has occupied 2,000 sq km area of India or not.

“You had one Muslim wazir (minister) in 2014, but there is none at present,” Owaisi said.

NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) member Supriya Sule called the White Paper a “politically coloured paper” in which only the paper was white. Quoting a data, she stated that the unemployment rate during the UPA regime was 2.2 per cent, while under the present government it is 6.6 per cent.

JMM member Vijay Kumar Hansdak said the government should issue a White Paper on the misuse of ED. “In Jharkhand, a Chief Minister was unseated forcibly. But Hemant Soren did not give up,” he said.