“These questions, filled with frustration, have emerged out of Congress’s hatred for PM Modi,” BJP mentioned.
New Delhi:
The BJP, armed with official progress figures, got here all weapons blazing in opposition to the Congress’s 9 questions for Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his nine-year tenure on the Centre. Calling them “a bundle of lies and a mountain of deception”, former minister and high BJP chief Ravi Shankar Prasad immediately mentioned he first considered ignoring it, but it surely’s such a “huge pack of lies” that he felt it essential to set the document straight.
“These questions, filled with frustration, have emerged out of Congress’s hatred for PM Modi. These usually are not questions arising out of criticism, which they’ve a proper to do, however are the results of a pathological hatred in the direction of Narendra Modi,” Mr Prasad mentioned.
They (Congress) have questioned Covid “mismanagement”, the previous union minister fumed, terming it “not only a lie, however the peak of Congress’s shamelessness”.
They’ve questioned the lockdown as nicely, even when the whole world accepts that India’s Covid administration was one of the best, he mentioned, citing varied authorities efforts to comprise the pandemic. He mentioned the grand previous get together is free to criticise, however questioned why it was “weakening India’s resolve” utilizing that.
“This can be a enormous disrespect to the lakhs of service employees — medical doctors, nurses, sanitation employees, and ambulance drivers — who tried to avoid wasting the nation in the course of the Covid disaster. We condemn this strongly,” he mentioned.
Ravi Shankar Prasad mentioned he was ‘amused’ by Congress’s declare that India’s economic system is in very dangerous form. The Indian economic system was part of the “fragile 5” throughout former PM Manmohan Singh’s tenure, he identified, including that below PM Modi’s 9 years on the helm, it’s among the many high 5 globally.
The previous minister then highlighted figures that he asserted indicated large progress within the economic system.
“Indian economic system was 1 trillion {dollars} in 2014, it has now crossed 3.5 trillion {dollars}. India has greater than 50 lakh crore foreign exchange reserves. India exported items value Rs 36 lakh crore, this was simply Rs 19 lakh crore in 2014. It virtually doubled,” he mentioned.
On worth rise, Mr Prasad countered by evaluating annual inflation figures with high economies throughout the globe.
“In April 2023, India’s annual inflation was 4.7 per cent. Within the US, it was 8.9, Australia 8.5, France 17.5, Sweden 21.2, and Germany 23.5,” he mentioned, including that this was regardless of the Ukraine conflict ‘dislocating’ the worldwide provide chain, affecting the whole world.
He then turned to questions on farmers. Citing Minimal Help Worth figures, he mentioned Congress was mendacity about MSP.
“MSP for Rice was Rs 1,360 per quintal in 2014-15, immediately it is Rs 2,040 per quintal. Paddy was Rs 1,400, it’s now Rs 2,060 per quintal. MSP for jowar was hiked from Rs 1,530 to 2,970, for bajra it went from Rs 1,250 to 2,350, and toor dal MSp went up from Rs 4,350 to Rs 6,600,” Mr Prasad mentioned.
“They need to examine information and proper their knowledge earlier than making allegations,” he added.
The previous minister then sought to “truth examine” Congress’s allegation that manufacturing was weakening.
Mr Prasad mentioned India was doing Rs 16,000 crore value of defence export, and is the second-biggest cellular producer on the earth.
“In 2022-23, cell phones value Rs 90,000 crore have been exported, using round 4 to 5 lakh folks (70 per cent ladies). In 2014, India exported 78 per cent of its cell phones. Now 99 per cent of India’s requirement is met by made-in-India mobiles,” he mentioned, with out giving out a comparability of total manufacturing knowledge.
Mr Prasad additionally hit out on the Congress for questioning the Items and Service Tax, which the previous Congress president had referred to as the “Gabbar Singh Tax”.
Rs 1.87 lakh crore income was generated from GST, the very best ever, he mentioned, and went on to quote knowledge from Direct Profit Transfers.
“In 2022-23, 6,68,435 crore rupees have been transferred on to the financial institution accounts of the poor as a part of 312 schemes. Rs 2,73,093 crore was saved, which was earlier siphoned off by middlemen,” he mentioned.
India’s fintech market is without doubt one of the largest on the earth, Mr Prasad identified. “It was Rs 50 billion {dollars} in 2021 and can contact 150 Billion {dollars} by 2025. Digital funds in India are value 10 billion {dollars},” he mentioned, suggesting India’s big strides in the direction of digitisation have been boosting the economic system.
On the query of unemployment, Mr Prasad didn’t quote official figures however urged that the tempo of highway development, growth of metros, and railway electrification, amongst different issues, have certainly generated employment. He additionally mentioned tech Unicorns are using scores of individuals.
“Railway electrification was simply 33 per cent in 2013-14, immediately it is 90 per cent. India has the most affordable web on the earth. 74 new airports have been constructed,” Mr Prasad mentioned, suggesting these have been driving employment.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, on the query of corruption, mocked Congress, citing sensational allegations of corruption throughout its time period on the Centre, particularly naming the 2G rip-off, Commonwealth Video games, Adarsh rip-off, Bofors, submarine, and helicopter rip-off.
Senior Congress chief Jairam Ramesh, flanked by get together leaders Pawan Khera and Supriya Shrinate, earlier immediately launched a booklet ‘Nau saal, Nau sawaal’ and mentioned PM Modi had grow to be the prime minister on today 9 years in the past and due to this fact, the get together desires to ask 9 questions of him.