The Lok Sabha held a 12-hour discussion today on the “white paper” proposed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The document highlighted corruption, fraud, economic mismanagement and poor policy planning by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
Nirmala Sitharaman presented the white paper to the House in Hindi and English. While it contains a list of failures of the UPA government, it also contains a list of steps taken by the NDA government to turn around the economy and shape the image of the country.
Debate in Lok Sabha
- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman opened the debate on the White Paper in the Lok Sabha by saying that for the Congress, “family comes first”.
- She added: “The comparisons in this ‘white paper’ make it clear that if the Government deals with this matter with true good faith, transparency and putting the country first, the results are there for all to see.”
- Sitharaman said the Modi government has led the country from the front during Covid-19. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has restored the glory of the country, she said.
- Speaking about the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the Treasurer said the way it was handled “brought a bad name to the country”. She said the coal scam also happened during the UPA regime.
- “It took 10 years for the country’s economy to get back on track,” Sitharaman said while highlighting economic reforms in the country’s development agenda.
- “UPA turned coal into ash, while NDA through its efforts turned coal into diamonds,” Sitharaman said.
- The finance minister lashed out at the Congress, saying they had “ruined” the country, while pointing out that the Modi-led government had ended “crony capitalism”.
Take a look at what the “white paper” says
The “White Paper” compares the UPA period with the 10 years of the Narendra Modi government and also reveals the legacy of the banking crisis left by the UPA government. The gross non-performing assets (GNPA) rate of public sector banks was 16.0% when the Vajpayee-led NDA government came into office and it was 7.8% when it left office.
“Numerous scams have resulted in huge revenue losses for the Treasury, and fiscal and revenue deficits have spiraled out of control. In 2014, our government inherited a severely damaged economy that must rebuild its foundations to achieve self-sustaining long-term economic growth, ” mentioned in the white paper.
The Lok Sabha Finance Minister highlighted as many as 15 scams in the UPA regime. The “coal block allocation” was the first scam Sitharaman highlighted in the white paper. At that time, it was under the direct supervision of the Prime Minister, thereby tarnishing Dr Manmohan Singh’s “Mr. Clean” image.
The incident related to corruption by the Center in allotment of coal blocks to private entities for their own use, resulting in an estimated loss of Rs 186 crore to the finance ministry. “The Supreme Court canceled 204 such allocations,” the white paper said.
She also raised the issue of the 2G spectrum scam, which a CAG report estimated had cost the Center Rs 176 crore in potential revenue loss. The then Congress minister Kapil Sibal claimed that the losses were “zero”, triggering widespread public outrage. Congress ally D Raja, the then telecom minister, was jailed for months along with some prominent bureaucrats.
The Modi government’s white paper states that the UPA government’s decision-making has stalled due to corruption and scandals in the defense sector, including defense preparedness. It is said that the UPA government has experienced repeated leadership crises. It was exposed in plain sight in the disgraceful act of openly tearing up the decrees issued by the government.
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