BJP govt ‘white paper’ on UPA economy pure politics: Key Manmohan Singh aide

The Modi government’s White Paper on the Indian economy, which slammed the Congress-led UPA government for “its policy misadventures,” is nothing but a political statement, says a key advisor to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“It is pure politics. The Manmohan Singh government presided over a period where the Indian economy grew with an 8–9 per cent economic growth rate. In 2007, India achieved its highest GDP growth rate of 9 per cent and became the second fastest-growing major economy in the world,” Sanjaya Baru, political commentator and policy analyst, told this reporter.

Baru, who was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s media advisor and chief spokesperson of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) from May 2004 to August 2008, said, “Any professional economist would vouch for the fact that India grew at a very high rate, witnessing the steepest decline in poverty and an all-time high growth in exports. Of course, it is the prerogative of the ruling government to do pure politics, which is what this White Paper is.”

In April 2014, Penguin India published The Accidental Prime Minister, Baru’s tell-all memoir about his time at the PMO. In it, Baru alleges that the economist Prime Minister was completely subservient to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who wielded significant influence in the running of the Singh administration, including the PMO itself. The book sparked off a controversy, with the office officially denouncing it as `fiction’. Baru has maintained that he set out to show an empathetic portrait of the prime minister.

According to Baru, it is a fact that between 1980-2000, India grew at 5.5 per cent but took off after 2000 to 8 per cent when the decade-long economic reforms began to bear fruit.

“There may have been mistakes, all governments do it. But to say that Manmohan Singh’s 10-year tenure was years of economic crisis and mismanagement, fiscal management crisis, industrial policy crisis, banking crisis, pushing the country to the fragile-five-economy status, is entirely incorrect,” Baru said.

BJP state units across the country will highlight the details of the “White Paper of the Economy” – the first time in Independent India – underscoring “what went wrong in the economy during the 10 years of UPA and the efforts taken by the Modi government to put it back on track”.

It is expected to be a major poll statement in the general election campaign, which is already underway in many parts of the country.