Government News

UPA pushed India into fragile five club: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

By - 10 Feb 2024 09:40 PM

New Delhi: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman tore into the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on Friday, saying it pushed the country into the Fragile Five and left it in dire straits in 2014 with its economic mismanagement by putting the "first family" first.During the UPA regime, the security of the nation was compromised, environmental clearances were delayed, and the leadership failed as it was run by a "super prime minister" and there was at least one big-ticket corruption case every year.

Initiating the debate on the 'White paper on Indian economy and its impact on the lives of people of India', Sitharaman said it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who put the nation first, pulling the country out of crisis and placing it among the top five economies of the world.

India is now on the way to becoming the third-largest economy, she said, adding that the NDA government will make India a developed nation (Viksit Bharat) by 2047.The youth should know what efforts the Prime Minister has put in to restore the country's past glory, said the FM, even as opposition members Saugata Roy of the Trinamool Congress Party and NK Premachandran of the Revolutionary Socialist Party moved substitute motions against the white paper.

On the need for the document being presented now, the finance minister said citizens as well as government officials would have been disillusioned had the white paper been released in 2015-16."Had we done that, no investors would have invested in India and if the truth of the economy was given out at that time, people would have lost faith," Sitharaman said.

She said when the NDA government took over in 2014, there was a critical shortage of ammunition and defence equipment. Bullet-proof jackets and night goggles were not available for soldiers."When you don't put the nation first, when you put your first family first, and when you have other considerations than transparency, the results are out there for you to see," Sitharaman said. "So what happened after 2008 when there was a global financial crisis and what happened post-Covid shows clearly that if the intent of the government is sincere, results will be good."