Battle over job creation

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday told Finance Minister P Chidambaram the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's job creation record was the worst in several years.

Not really contesting the fact that average growth during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) years wasn't 8.4 per cent, the BJP found other ways to criticise the government - it said the UPA government had created no opportunities for the people ("not empty slogans that call for eating full meals and not working for 265 days but empowering the people in a manner that they can work for 365 days, use quality infrastructure and not eat crumbs thrown at them but food of their choice").

According to the BJP, National Sample Survey Organisation statistics say the number of jobs created in 1999-2004 was 60.1 million, while in 2004-2011, it was 14.6 million (for UPA-I, which Chidambaram terms the golden period, it was 2.7 million). "These figures speak for themselves," said the BJP.

It added India's economic ruin began in 2008, thanks to "mindless spending", which included the much touted farm loan waiver. "When the NDA came to power, the growth rate was 4.8 per cent. Today, we are again close to that figure in 2013, after a golden period starting from 1999, whose efforts were seen in the growth during 2003 and 2004," the party says.