Modi accuses Manmohan Singh for dip in economic growth

As the economy recorded the slowest growth in nine years, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi today attacked the Centre for an alleged state of "policy paralysis" and said the it had "no inkling" of the upcoming problem. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jun 1, 2012, 20:52:02 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Accusations flew fast between Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and minister of state for planning Ashwini Kumar over country’s economic situation.

Triggered by Kumar, Modi went ballistic on Friday accusing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for dip in economic growth saying the Central government has been hit by “policy paralysis”

His impromptu onslaught started after Kumar told reporters that Gujarat was lacking in some areas and there was different in data regarding out of school children in the state. Gujarat government claimed that less than one lakh children were out of school whereas the Planning Commission put the figure at 1.53 lakh.

The CM was at the plan panel to finalise the state’s annual plan pegged at Rs. 51,000 crore for current fiscal as compared to Rs. 38,000 crore for last financial year. The state will get Rs. 2,51,000 crore in the 12th plan (2012-17) as compared to Rs. 2,30,00 crore it got from the Central government since 1960.

Once the meeting got over, the verbal duel took place with panel’s deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia a spectator.

Modi said PM Singh’s had told Rajya Sabha in March that economy will grow by 7% but the data shows it is much less. “Economic growth is falling, rupee is weakening and inflation is rising,” he said, terming it an indication of the Central government doing nothing to revive the economy. “The Central government made 20 policy announcements but no final decision has been taken”.

Terming that the economic growth was struck, Modi said the Central government was in total paralysis and it was a matter of “deep” concern.

Kumar tried to do some damage control by blaming global economic situation was India’s falling economic growth and went to the extent of claiming that growth in the 12th plan (2012-17) would be around eight percent. The approach paper approved by Prime Minister Singh had targeted growth at nine percent during 12th plan.

“Indian is integrated with global economic stream,” was his rebuttal to Modi, emphasising that even United States has also lowered its economic growth target.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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