Exaggeration marks Modi government's two years in power: Congress

The Congress on Monday said the Narendra Modi government's two years in power at the Centre have been marked by exaggeration and prevarication.

"We have already seen that this is a government of exaggeration and prevarication, that of misrepresentation of facts and drum beating," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told media here.

"Modi ji unfortunately presides over a government of great event management skills but event management becomes hollow in the absence of all fundamental facts," he said.

He accused the central government of lying and misrepresenting facts related to crucial schemes.

"No less than the prime minister said that Rs.15,000 crore was saved by plugging LPG subsidies and leaks but some media reports have suggested that only Rs.143 crore was saved from cash transfers and subsidies for LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) in over two years," the Congress leader said.

"Even the government's Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramaniam says that potential savings from these schemes could be Rs.12,000 crore as against the claimed Rs.15,000 crore," Singhvi added.

He also said that the government had issued only 60 lakh new LPG connections to the poor in the last two years, instead of 3 crore connections claimed by the prime minister.

"This is very clear because the government's press release in January 2016 said that by January 45 lakh gas connections had been issued through 'Give Back' scheme. In April, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the media that 60 lakh new gas connections had been released," Singhvi said and wondered aloud: "Where did this mythical three crore connections come from?"

He said Modi claimed more than 1.65 crore fake ration cards were cancelled since May 2014 while the actual figure was only 66 lakh.

Singhvi also accused Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of misrepresenting facts.

"The Finance Minister says more than 20 crore bank accounts were opened during the first 100 days of the 'Jan Dhan Scheme' but the actual figure is 8.7 crore, which is less than 40 per cent of what you are claiming," the Congress leader said.

"The government's own report says on the 100th day of the government, 8.7 crore bank accounts were opened. "So, where did the 20 crore figure come from?"

The Congress leader alleged that the central government did not give out the country's actual Gross Domestic Product figures.

"India is the fastest growing country in the world. Remember, the 7.6 per cent GDP is on the basis of a new calculation system. Even Arvind Subramaniam and RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan have publicly expressed scepticism about the new method of calculation," Singhvi said while asserting that the government's own figures show at least three other countries ahead of India.

"They are not big countries but the figures should be correct when the country's Prime Minister speaks. The GDP in Myanmar is the highest at 8.6 per cent, followed by Ivory Coast at 8.5 per cent, Bhutan at 8.4 per cent and India at 7.5 per cent as per the new method of calculation which is doubted by many experts," Singhvi said.

--IANS

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