Modi rehashes UPA government's achievements: Sharma

Commerce minister accuses Narendra Modi of "political plagiarism"

Hitting out at Narendra Modi, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma today said the economic vision of BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate is nothing but "political plagiarism".

Modi, he said, revealed nothing new in his economic vision for India and only rehashed the UPA government's achievements.

"What is being claimed as a vision (by Modi) is political plagiarism," Sharma told reporters here.

The minister also said the Gujarat Chief Minister's claims on investment figures during Vibrant Gujarat Summits were highly exaggerated.

Sharma said if one adds up investments committed during the summits, they would exceed by manifold FDI inflows into the entire country.

Citing the Reserve Bank data, Sharma said Gujarat received only $ 9 billion in FDI (between April, 2000 and December, 2013).

Maharashtra received the highest FDI during the said period ($ 65 billion), followed by New Delhi ($ 38.8 billion) and Chennai ($ 12.6 billion).

He said Gujarat had claimed in 2011 that during the summit the state inked 7,936 MoUs worth $ 450 billion and 675 MoUs. In the previous summits also, Modi had claimed multi-billion dollar FDI proposals, Sharma said.

"Just add it (the numbers). This is a multiple of at least 5 or 6 times of India's total FDI. The total FDI received by India is $ 296 billion (so far)," he added.

He also said when NDA demitted office (in 2004), India's exports were to the tune of $ 78 billion and now they have crossed $ 300 billion.

"Perhaps Modi is not familiar with (the current figures). The numbers are there in the record. I don't want to get into 'tu tu mai mai'...I do not expect him to be knowledgeable or to have the humility to appreciate the achievements but the criticism is in conflict with the numbers and facts," Sharma said.

He said that during the last four years, India received $ 176 billion in FDI and India has become one of top destinations for foreign investments.

He said BJP has impacted the country's investment climate by saying that they would roll back the FDI in multi-brand retail policy.