Last decade was a wasted opportunity under UPA governance says BJP

 Blaming UPA for the poor state of the country's economy, BJP today said it was not the global meltdown but absence of leadership, dual power centres and inherent corruption which led to the flight of investment and promised rationalisation of the tax regime.

In the Economic Resolution unanimously passed at its National Council meeting, the BJP said the last decade has been a "wasted opportunity" as government failed to control inflation and corruption, which has become the "hallmark" of this government, and led to the present state of economy.

"The economic slump under the UPA was less about global meltdown and more about complete absence of leadership, dual power centers, bankruptcy of ideas, lack of vision, disastrous policies and inherent corruption.

"It was a wasted decade in which the country saw decline of all the sectors, be it education, health, economy, politics or governance. Overall it proved a regime of rapid moral degradation," Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said.

Giving a ray of hope to the country and the Indian entrepreneurs, who he said have a lot of potential, the BJP promised that it will revive the state of economy and investment, but said, "it will be quite a big challenge." On the proposed tax reforms, which the BJP said could not materialise due to the "inept" handling of UPA and "failure" to address concerns of states, it said, "BJP is committed to the rationalisation and simplification of the tax regime". It, however, did not elaborate on the issue.

Former BJP President Nitin Gadkari said, the party would bring education, judicial, administrative and tax reforms.

"We want to bring a rational tax system, which is free from corruption, that ends licence raj and permits, stops blackmoney and converts it into white economy," Gadkari said.

Jaitley said after 10 years when the economy should be running and used to be showcased across the world as a perfect destination for investment, today the whole world is saying one should not invest in India. 

Hitting out at the Congress on the issue of corruption, which he said, touched an all-time high, the BJP leader highlighted the 2G Spectrum and coal block allocations, Commonwealth Games scam and the VVIP chopper scam which "brought down" the image of the country the world over leading to decline on investment and flight of capital.

He said bad governance, policy paralysis and corruption have dealt a body blow to the investor confidence both in the country and abroad, and some serious efforts will have to be taken to to help restore it.

He said the UPA inherited a robust economy with 8.4% growth in May 2004 but had left it shattered with growth rate of a meager less than 5% and high inflation.

"The country can no longer afford any further political experimentation at the cost of economic mismanagement that the country has enormously suffered under the Congress led UPA regime."

Supporting the economic resolution, senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi said the economic health of the country and health of the government and the people had deteriorated during UPA, even as there has been reduction in moral and ethical values.

Referring to the cash-for-vote scam, he said, "This government was formed on corrupt policies, it ran on corruption and its policies were not in the interest of the common man... The wrong and bad policies of this government is responsible for the current economic situation due to the shameful loot of money and natural resources of the country." Joshi also expressed concern over the increasing loan burden on the country and feared losing India's economic sovereignty.

"If there is no economic sovereignty, then India will also lose its political sovereignty," he claimed.