White paper triggers govt-opposition clash
NEW DELHI : The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and the opposition Congress party locked horns on Thursday, over a paper tabled in the Lok Sabha by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman accusing the previous United Progressive Alliance regime of undermining the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals, and the Congress hitting back at the government citing price rice and unemployment. The debate over the economic track record before and after 2014 highlighted major shocks that India’s economy underwent under both regimes, how the respective governments dealt with them, the effectiveness of the fiscal stimulus, given as well as the persisting issues of price rice and job creation not being commensurate with the demand from a large working age population.
The government’s white paper accused the UPA of excessive revenue spending, misguided stimulus, high fiscal deficit, inflation, failure to sustain reforms and political interference in commercial lending decisions of state-owned banks leading to toxic assets in the banking system. Following this, Congress president and Rajya Sabha member Mallikarjun Kharge released a document that he described as a ‘black paper’ titled ‘anyay kaal (unjst era) 2014-24’ accusing the NDA government of rampant unemployment, economic blunders, price rise of essential items like cooking gas, milk and flour, distress among farmers, stagnant wages, social disharmony and low labour force participation.
The government’s white paper said that the NDA regime has overcome every challenge of the pre-2014 era through its economic management and governance. “These have placed the country on a resolute path of sustained high growth.
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