The UPA was left red in the face with BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Sunday drawing a comparison between the sliding growth rate under Congress-led coalition Government and the robust figure posted by the previous NDA regime.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday called Modi’s claim as “fake encounter with facts” and quoted figures to suggest the “average (growth rate) for the six year period (of NDA) was 6.0 per cent and the average for the last five years was 5.9 per cent”. In contrast, the average growth rate during Congress-led UPA’s first term was 8.4 per cent and 7.3 per cent during the first four years of UPA-II, he said.
“The two worst years since the turn of the century were 2000-01 (4.3 per cent) and 2002-03 (4 per cent),” he said giving out yearly GDP growth rate during the six years of NDA rule under Vajpayee. “Nothing can be further from the truth... I wonder why Shri Narendra Modi should stage a fake encounter with facts. Ultimately, facts will prevail,” the Finance Minister said, adding, “If there was a golden period of growth, it was the five year period under UPA-1.”
Addressing the Indian diaspora during the Annual National Convention of the USA Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) via videoconference on Sunday Modi claimed growth rate was 8.4 per cent during NDA regime but it came down to 4.8 per cent during the UPA’s rule.
A statement released by Chidambaram claimed 8.1 per cent was the highest growth rate that NDA regime achieved during 2003-04. However, BJP leaders immediately dished out the Economic Survey of 2004-05, presented by Chidambaram as Finance Minister, which claimed “the economy had registered a growth rate of 8.5 per cent in 2003-04, the highest ever, except 1975-76 and 1988-89”.
The 2004-05 economic survey further reads, “Following the ‘bumper’ growth in 2003-04 (NDA rule), initial growth projections for 2004-05 were placed in the range of 6.2 per cent to 7.4 per cent”.
BJP’s deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad claimed Chidambaram’s statement on the observations made by Narendra Modi is not only factually incorrect and being economical with truth, but is a glaring case of resorting to fake encounters with facts. “This is the expression he has used against Modi, but on the contrary it squarely applies on him,” Prasad said.
He also sought to know from Chidambaram why the UPA squandered the strong economic foundation provided by the NDA and brought down the figure to 4.8 per cent. The BJP leader claimed the growth rate during NDA regime was exemplary because it was achieved under very difficult circumstances and unfavourable atmosphere - like economic sanctions after Pokharan test, Kargil War, East-Asia crisis in 1999-2000, earthquake in Gujarat in 2001-02 and other natural crisis.
Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha also hit out at Chidambaram, accusing him of indulging in “statistical jugglery” about the growth figures.