This Article is From May 22, 2013

Highlights: Nothing to celebrate in UPA-II's four years; govt should apologise, says BJP

New Delhi: BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley talk about inflation, security and the economic crisis India is facing.

Here are the highlights:

Sushma Swaraj:

  • UPA-2 has finished four years today. In the past four years, they have been so unsuccessful that we do not wish to delve into their entire nine-year regime
  • Dr Manmohan Singh is the PM but not the leader of the UPA. Allies sit with him in the Cabinet but look towards UPA chairperson for solutions
  • There is one-upmanship between the Congress party and the government
  • Prices of fuel were raised consistently and each time Sonia would bring the prices by a rupee or so
  • So the trend was that the difficult decisions were made by the government but the appeasement was done by the Congress
  • Financial situation of the country is a big issue
  • We have known financial situation in terms of GDP, fiscal growth etc
  • UPA agreed that NDA had given good financial policies in their first economic survey
  • Infrastructure projects worth lakhs of crores are pending, according to a news daily
  • We gave the UPA-I a booming economy. That scenario has completely changed. No investments coming in, no decisions being taken
  • There is mind-boggling corruption, figures that have never been heard of
  • The brunt of corruption is being borne by the common man  in terms of inflation
  • UPA has also been unsuccessful in foreign relations - Maldives is eye-balling  India, we have been unsuccessful when it came to securing rights of Lankan Tamils 
  • India is not doing enough for Tamils
  • It took so long to solve the incursion in Ladakh
  • The government has failed in foreign policy
  • This governance has seen maximum crimes against women
  • We are surprised what the UPA is celebrating today
  • They should have sat down to apologise to the nation
  • They don't believe in democratic process
  • When they were appointing the CVC, I had given a dissent note, finally appointment had to be scrapped by Supreme Court
  • They are now doing the same with NHRC
  • They are not going to do anything
  • They are going to exploit democratic institutions
  • The UPA will not introspect but we have decided to stage protests, and launch jail bharo andolan
  • If we come to power we'll take policy decisions which will bring relief to the common man
  • Wrong to say parties will not come with NDA, some of them were part of NDA till 2004
  • Parliamentary board will decide who'll be the face of the party at an appropriate time, why are you so eager?
  • Had they taken the resignations (of Ashwani KUmar and Pawan Bansal) on May 8, we would have passed bills on 9-10(in Budget Session of Parliament)


Arun Jaitley:


  • Never has the country seen such an atmosphere of gloom, cynicism and pessimism
  • This is all because the governance of UPA 2
  • They have the ego of being in power
  • The propaganda isn't being accepted by the people
  • The opinion polls suggest that UPA 2 popularity is going down drastically
  • The danger of excessive propaganda is that you accept your own propaganda
  • They look towards the UPA chairperson for the present, to someone else for the future, as if there is no political role for the PM
  • Don't remember any other period where the office of the PM has become a target of sarcasm and humour
  • This is the state of India
  • We had a booming economy because of NDA which was given to UPA
  • Policy paralysis wasn't even used when the economy was at 2%
  • UPA suffering from policy paralysis
  • UPA's only achievement is using CBI to its advantage
  • If they did not misuse the CBI, then perhaps the Samajwadi Party and BSP would not have saved them with 'outside' support
  • Lokpal law is ready but they have not brought it on the floor of the House
  • They have put up a futile attempt by setting up a GoM for CBI
  • Lokpal legislation which need recommendations for Delhi police are already been given, but they don't want to move ahead
  • Confident that election results will be spectacularly in our favour
  • Third Front is a failed idea, the polity of India has become increasingly bi-polar

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