Poll will be fought on how UPA "mismanaged" economy: BJP

BJP today accused Congress-led UPA of nearly "destroying" the country's economy despite having an economist as prime minister and said the coming Lok Sabha election will be fought on how the country has been run by them.
"The rank of mismanagement of India's economy under an economist Prime Minister leading to price rise, higher unemployment and the near-destruction of all engines of economy is one of the biggest shames of the ten-year misrule of Congress-led UPA," BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad charged.
He claimed when NDA had handed over power to UPA in 2004, the state of the economy was "robust in all spheres" and the higher growth level achieved in the initial years of UPA was a result of the solid base its coalition left.

"All the parametres of the Indian economy were fine when NDA left and gave a solid base...Today, policy paralysis, indecision, price rise, corruption and scams have become the order of the day.
"This government is not looking inward as far as sheer destruction of Indian economy is concerned...This election will be fought on how you ran the country," he said.
Dishing out figures from government data, Prasad listed various parametres on which the economy is in shambles - be it lower growth rate and industrial growth, high fiscal deficit, inflation and current account deficit, rising unemployment and declining industrial production and manufacturing sector.

He alleged UPA has destroyed employment generation.

"UPA could not even sustain the gains in efficiency achieved by NDA!," he said.
"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi should answer how the economy was destroyed under their regime," Prasad said.
Taking a jibe at Finance Minister P Chidamabaram for accusing BJP of doing "fake encounters with facts", he said "these are your facts" and not fake encounters.