Taking a cue from Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP on Friday squarely blamed the Manmohan Singh-led Government for sluggish economic growth and mood of pessimism and negativity in the country.
The BJP said that the government led by an economist PM had failed to meet the pressing challenges of the day, like taming inflation, and added that while there was a policy paralysis at the Centre, the NDA-ruled states, in contrast, were doing much better than than the national average.
“The government is led by economist PM Manmohan Singh, but there’s policy paralysis at the Centre, and a mood of negativity all around. It’s the NDA states that are defying this trend by performing much better than the national average,” said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.
Referring to Thursday’s National Development Council (NDC) meeting, the BJP added that 12th Five-year Plan was “non-realisable” and the problem was aggravated because of lack of political will and leadership in the UPA Government.
“The 12th Five- year Plan which was approved by the NDC on Thursday was to start in April 2012. Till the time it is rolled out, another six months will pass. So we have lost one-and-a-half years or 25 per cent of the Plan period,” Javadekar said. The BJP cautioned that most of its provisions may remain just on paper and not be implemented. “Many of the assumptions are un-realisable and therefore, the targets are also unattainable,” Javadekar said.
He alleged that all sectors showed a trend of underperformance and hence, the ambitious targets were likely to turn out to be mythical. “On such a background what is required is a political leadership and political will of the government which is completely absent. The government may have made some announcements but they lack direction and a vision,” he said.
The BJP also insisted that states should have been consulted before finalising the plan. “The government must realise that it can achieve milestones only with the active cooperation of states,” Javadekar said.
He also said the plan should have been discussed in Parliament though there was no precedent for such an exercise.