Govt not Opposition to be blamed for slow growth: BJP

Speaking at the Annual General Meeting of FICCI where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had earlier taken a dig at parties opposing the reforms saying they were "ignorant of global realities or are constrained by out-dated ideologies," she said it was not the opposition but "internal differences in the government and among its allies" which were delaying key bills

"It is not pessimism but an atmosphere of cynicism... More than policy the right environment is important but here everyday there are scams," Swaraj said.

She maintained that the Opposition is only performing its role of the watchdog and asked the government to introspect. She said that the scams are not mere allegations levelled by the Opposition but have been unearthed by constitutional bodies like the CAG.

"The Prime Minister says the opposition does not allow Bills to be passed. I want to clarify that Bills are not being passed due to the internal differences in the government and among its allies," the BJP leader said.

She mentioned the Pensions Bill and said that BJP had bailed out the government at the time of introduction when UPA did not have numbers in the House and the Left demanded a division of votes.

Swaraj also hit out at Singh for making an "excuse" of coalition compulsions for some of the decisions or the delay in taking them. "We also ran a coalition government which had more constituents. There were 24 parties in the NDA. Manmohan Singh is the Prime Minister but he is neither the leader of his party nor of the country." (MORE)