BENGALURU: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda is to nurture the country’s economy and everyone should support him and the government that has taken this up on priority.
Terming the UPA rule as a dark decade as the economy went into a bad state, she said, “But now we have become the fifth largest economy and we are confident of moving to the top three within the next few years. We need political stability for this.”
At an interaction programme with members of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in Bengaluru, she said, “Though the opposition is trying hard to find corruption or decision missteps by the Union government, they are not able to.”
Modi has set a target of achieving ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047. “This means that India will be among the developed countries in the world where our youngsters go for education, jobs and other opportunities. This will be a sea change in what we saw India in 2013-14 and now. Development does not happen without effort.
People are putting efforts. But when the leadership fails to meet the expectations of people, growth will be stagnant,” she said and highlighted the importance of political stability to become the top three countries in the world. “We need a clear vision. We need intensive action in every aspect of the economy,” she added.
The finance minister also said India has come out of a big drawback because of the majority mandate by voters. The leadership now prioritise nation and not family.
She claimed that India witnessed a double rate inflation between 2009 and 2014. “Corporate investments had come down, red-tapism and tax terrorism are all the ingredients of a fragile economy. Investment and infrastructure had collapsed due to policy paralysis,” she said.
She pointed out that during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, 24,000 km of national highways were constructed and developed in five years, whereas in ten years of the UPA government, it was 16,000 km.