The Congress on Tuesday attempted to present the factual status comparing its UPA-I and UPA-II governance with the NDA to counter the ‘misinformation’ being spread across by the BJP over the state of economy saying “even the worst performance of UPA is better than the best performance of NDA”.
A day after war of words broke out between former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and incumbent P Chidambaram, the Congress alleged the BJP’s claims of good governance and development were by distortion of figures.
“These are the supreme ironies from which the BJP and Narendra Modi are running away. People can lie and distort, but facts cannot be ignored. Rhetoric, polemics, slogans, supposed oratory skills or as we are now told lack of oratory skills will not make up for facts,” AICC spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.
“Competition for good governance can be only between UPA-I and UPA-II and not between the UPA and the NDA. You cannot substitute facts by hurling abuses in rallies and making taunts. While the Congress has walked the talk, the BJP is trying to fool the people with slogans,” Singhvi said.
Citing figures of growth in agriculture, industry and services, Singhvi claimed that the NDA was a ‘laggard’ and UPA-I did better than UPA-II. He said the GDP growth which was six per cent in the six years of NDA rose to 8.4 per cent during UPA-I and it was 7.3 per cent in the first two years of UPA-II, “our lower and worst”. He said the agriculture growth rate was just 2.9 per cent during the NDA rule, while it was 3.91 in UPA-I and 3.6 in two years of UPA-II.
“The growth in services sector was 7.8 per cent in NDA, 9.9 per cent in UPA-I and 8.9 per cent in UPA-II. Even in fiscal deficit, the 5.5 per cent in NDA was matched by UPA-II,” Singhvi said. He also claimed that UPA achieved significantly in poverty reduction.
The party also took on Modi by stating the “beginning of the end” of BJP has started with the projection of Narendra Modi as an all powerful leader in the lok Sabha elections. “One dictator, autocrat, with a self-serving image (of the leader) has started the beginning of the end of the BJP,” Singhvi said. The spokesman was reacting to a question on the poll jingle brought out by the BJP showing Modi as a strong and decisive leader who will not allow the country’s interests to be compromised at any cost.
Singhvi also rejected the BJP charge that the Government is not allowing Modi to address rallies, saying that it has given full freedom to everyone to go to every nook and corner and continue with his “false propaganda”. Turning to the 2002 Gujarat riots, he said, “let him (Modi) make a statement reflecting even a skeleton of an apology, forget an apology.”