State models not ideal for national development: Yashwant Sinha

Many issues like banking, markets are not dealt by the states: Yashwant Sinha

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi may be keen on replicating his State’s model across the country, but his party associate and senior leader Yashwant Sinha thinks otherwise. According to the former Union finance minister, no State’s model of development is ideal for implementation at the national level.  

“The state model is not the right one for national development. There are many issues which states do not deal with but the national government has to,” he said here on Thursday, to a query raised at a seminar on whether the Gujarat growth model was better than Bihar's growth model. “Many issues like banking, markets are not dealt by the states,” he added at the seminar, organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce.

Sinha's comments come at a time when the country's main opposition party has been flaunting its Gujarat growth model and at least a section of the BJP plans to implement the model at the centre.

However, Sinha later added that the state model was valid for a number of areas including agriculture, rural development, education and health. Later during the interactive session, commenting on the current state of the economy, the senior BJP leader said, “Policymakers’ dependence on the US Federal Reserve is not good. Steps should be taken to reduce this vulnerability.”

“It should not be the case that there will be three years of growth at a scorching pace and then a period of recession, which is being witnessed now,” he added.

Speaking about India's growth outlook for the current financial year, Sinha told reporters that it would be certainly be less than five per cent.