Lack of leadership behind UPA scams: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman
economictimes.indiatimes.comFinance minister Nirmala Sitharaman Saturday said lack of leadership lay at the heart of the "scam-driven" United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government as well as mismanagement of the economy during its tenure. Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi ran the government as «super Prime Minister» without being accountable, she said.
«Sonia Gandhi-ji was the super Prime Minister as the chairperson of the National Advisory Council and an extra-constitutional and unaccountable person,» Sitharaman said in her reply to a short-duration discussion on the white paper on the Indian economy in the Rajya Sabha.
The white paper was presented in Parliament on February 8.
«It was an unaccountable and unanswerable power. Due to this, scams took place. It was an unconstitutional use of power,» said the FM.
'Guided by Desire for Political Gain'
Sitharaman said the UPA regime's reckless fiscal policy, ill-targeted subsidies and wasteful expenditure were guided by the desire for political gain.
She said the inflation rate had been below 4% in the last year of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government (2003-4), but it remained significantly high during the 10-year UPA regime that followed.
The finance minister said the Congress party had mastered the art of ruining the accomplishments of the previous government, as they did while managing inflation.
On Friday, speaking in the Lok Sabha, she had said that the economic mismanagement of the UPA government had pushed the country into the so-called Fragile Five group of countries.
Sitharaman
