Press Briefing Monday, 20 Apr 2009

Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan addressed the media today.

Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan said that she has a small paper today to present before the Media. It is - Separating Fact from Fiction – The Truth Behind 5 Myths on the Economy being propagated by the BJP.

I. Summary

It is said that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will come to start believing it. The BJP, in keeping with its scheme of propagating ill thought out polemic, has been making all manner of claims on India’s economic performance under the Congress-led UPA Government with complete disregard to the actual facts. The BJP’s claims are even more ludicrous when one considers how significantly better the Congress-led UPA’s performance has been when compared to the NDA Government.

This paper attempts to place a few facts on the table for the people of India in order to separate fact from fiction.

Myth 1: The Congress has “mismanaged the economy and it is in recession”.

Fact: The BJP’s claim of the economy being in recession is both technically and substantively untrue. India’s average economic growth rate during the five years of the Congress-led UPA Government was 8.5%, compared to 5.8% under the NDA Government. Even in the last year of the Congress-led UPA Government, with the world sinking into recession, India’s growth remains resilient, and our growth is higher than it was during the NDA regime.

Myth 2: The Congress led Government has “hobbled both the organized and unorganized sectors of the Indian economy”.

Fact: The growth rate of the industry and services sector increased from 5.0% and 7.7% under the NDA period to 7.8% and 10.5% under the Congress-led UPA Government. In addition, the UPA Government instituted landmark programmes for the unorganized sector (such as Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana for workers) which did not exist under the NDA.

Myth 3: The Congress’ “fiscal indiscipline has resulted in frittering away the tremendous gains of the NDA years”.

Fact: The Congress-led UPA has actually brought down the fiscal deficit from 6.0% under the NDA period to 4.5% under the UPA Government. The UPA Government has done this even as it has substantially increased funds for social programmes such as the SSA, NHRM, Bharat Nirman, etc. and has given much higher sums of money to all State Governments (Rs. 5,44,000 crore more in aggregate) compared with the NDA Government.

Myth 4: The agriculture sector (is) “suffering on account of the Congress’ gross negligence”.

Fact: Agriculture growth rate has actually increased significantly under the UPA Government to 3.1% as opposed to 2.3% under the NDA Government. The Congress-led UPA Government also made major increases in the minimum support price (MSP) to farmers; for wheat and paddy, for example, the MSP was increased by 71% and 68% respectively. The UPA Government also implemented the historic farm loan waiver programme benefiting 3.68 crore farmer families.

Myth 5: The UPA Government has given a “step motherly treatment to BJP ruled states” during its rule.

Fact: The Congress-led UPA Government has given more funds to the BJP ruled States than the NDA Government even conceived of giving. The Congress-led UPA Government increased central funding to the four BJP-ruled Sates – Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Rajasthan – by 63% (increase of Rs. 73,824 crore) in its tenure, compared to the NDA Government.

Smt. Natarajan said that the issue really is that we thought it was time that we brought the entire debate and discussion back to a substantial agenda and we wanted to show that the BJP party, despite its best attempts, cannot possibly substantiate the lies about economy that it has been spreading and the economy under this Government has actually flourished as best as it could despite the global recession. When we get re-elected again, this Government - the UPA Government led by Dr. Manmohan Singh will continue to take the country forward on the path to development.

On the question of reaction of the Congress-led UPA Government on the loss of millions of jobs across the country, Smt. Natarajan said that we got specific plans which we have already explained. First of all, that is the global recession and despite that our management to detailed agenda to revise the industrial development, to accelerate industrial development; we are concentrating also on public sector. As far as the under privileged section of the society are concerned, we have already benefited over Rs. 4 crore families under NREGA. Therefore, the final myth that there is loss of jobs or there is less number of jobs under this Government is totally wrong. The Congress-led UPA Government has generated over 4 crore jobs at the lowest level and the continued concern for the ‘aam-aadmi’. Whatever jobs are in danger due to global recession, that too we are taking steps to ensure that we are insulated as much as possible from the entire global recession all over the world.

Over the question of ultimatum given to LTTE Chief to surrender within 24 hours, would the Congress demand extradition of Shri Prabhakaran, Smt. Natarajan said ‘most certainly’. He is the prime accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. It will be the stand of my party and definitely of any Government that we demand the extradition of Shri Prabhakaran. Smt. Natarajan further said that the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has already clarified this stand.

On the question of the statement of the BJP party accusing the Central Government of being very secretive about the appointment of Mr. Chawla, Smt. Natarajan said that the BJP party is totally bereft of any constructive issues. They have completed two weeks of abusing for 5 years of abusing the Prime Minister and now they are directing their attack towards the Election Commission. Their attempt will fail. They should now really concentrate upon a constructive agenda. The Election Commission is a constitutional body and she added that the BJP should not tell them their job.