A day after French President Emmanuel Macron praised India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) architecture, the Congress on Friday said that the digital payments system was originally conceived during the UPA government and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of taking undue credit for the initiative.
The opposition party compared Modi to a student in a group project who contributes little but appears at the end to claim recognition.
Speaking at the India AI Impact Summit on Thursday, Macron highlighted India’s transformation in digital payments and financial inclusion, calling it a remarkable technological and social achievement.
"Ten years ago, a street vendor in Mumbai could not open a bank account. No address, no papers, no access. And today, the same vendor accepts payments on his phone, instantly.Instantly, for free, from anyone in the country," he said.
"That is not just a tech story, that is a civilisation story. And India built something that no other country in the world has built, a digital identity for 1.4 billion people. A payment system that now processes 20 billion transactions every month," Macron had said.
Prime Minister Modi, while addressing the summit, emphasised that UPI enabled seamless online transactions even under challenging circumstances and played a crucial role in bridging the digital divide.
Responding to the remarks, Congress media and publicity department head Pawan Khera posted on X on Friday, criticising the Prime Minister’s claims over UPI.
"We all remember that one classmate in a group project - does no work, but shows up to take all the credit.That is Narendra Modi."
Khera said the foundations of UPI were laid during 2012–2013 under a group led by Nandan Nilekani, who was then chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India.
"Look at the UPI architecture in India that was appreciated by Emmanuel Macron, the initial conception of UPI happened in 2012-2013, under a group led by Nandan Nilekani, then chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India," Khera said.
He added that a UPA government-appointed committee had recommended a mobile-based digital payments infrastructure in December 2013.
"The Immediate Payment Service, developed by National Payments Corporation of India in 2010, laid the technical backbone.NPCI began designing the core architecture that would become UPI in 2013-2014," Khera said.
The Congress leader added that the Prime Minister focuses on publicity rather than innovation.
"Bereft of the capacity to think of groundbreaking ideas, Modi is happy with cutting ribbons, blabbering ludicrous acronyms, cursing Congress and stealing credit," he said.
(With inputs from PTI)