Manmohan Singh made realistic, fair assessment of Indian economy: Congress to Jaitley

The verbal volley between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over views expressed by Dr. Manmohan Singh in an interview escalated further, with Congress Party leader Anand Sharma saying that the former prime minister had made a 'realistic and fair assessment of the state of the Indian economy'.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had earlier slammed Dr. Singh for his remarks that Prime Minister Modi was not reaching out to the opposition and government not doing enough to move up the country's economy.

Jaitley, in a blog post, wrote that if Dr. Singh were to 'dispassionately analyse the present government, then he would realise that India has a government where the Prime Minister has the last word and where natural resources are allocated without corruption through transparent process.

Speaking to ANI here today, Sharma said that the Finance Minister had responded in a very uncharitable manner to the words of wisdom conveyed by former prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

"Dr. Singh is absolutely right in making a realistic and fair assessment of the state of the Indian economy and advice caution. This government has failed to deliver when it comes to economic revival. The state of the economy is a grave national concern," he said.

"There is bad performance in all sectors. How can the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister continue making boastful claims of their achievements, when the investments have fallen to an all time low. Exports have been on free fall for 13 months. The job losses are mounting in the manufacturing sector," he added.

Sharma said that Jaitley should first give an account of his government's performance and their failure on the economic front, rather than trying to find fault with the former prime minister and the previous government.

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Jaitley pointed out several shortcomings of the UPA Government in his blog post. He said that infrastructure areas and sectoral challenges were not addressed during the UPA.

He said that under present regime, the nation had moved from being in a position of 'policy-paralysis' to a global 'bright-spot'.

""During the UPA Government, the public sector banks were hardly run by their own boards, or even by North Block. They were run from 24, Akbar Road. In power and infrastructure areas, sectoral challenges were not addressed during the UPA. It is the present government which is clearing up these accumulated challenges," Jaitley wrote.