Bad days have begun for countrymen: Congress

Taking potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his remarks that the UPA government left everything empty, Congress today claimed "bad days have begun for the countrymen", citing a socio-economic survey of Gujarat.

"Good days might have come for Modi and BJP but bad days have begun for the countrymen. They had shown golden dreams promising they would change everything. Now since they cannot and will not fufil the promises made to people, they are putting the blame on Congress," party spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said at the AICC briefing.

"Soon after forming the government, they started telling people to be ready for bitter pills. The Prime Minister is today criticising the economy of UPA but when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat, an economic survey report of his government had said some quite opposite," party spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said at the AICC briefing.

Quoting from the Socio-Economic Survey (2012-2013) of Gujarat, he said "Countries like India, China and Brazil have largely been responsible for stroking the engine of global economy during the year."

Addressing BJP workers in Panaji on Saturday, Modi had said, "I have taken over the reins of the country in circumstances when there is nothing left behind by the previous government. They left everything empty. The country's financial health has hit the bottom."

Gohil reminded that the Congress government led by PV Narasimha Rao had brought back India's gold mortgaged in 1991 when it had inherited the reins of power from the Chandra Shekhar dispensation.

Citing figures of the state of economy during UPA period vis a vis that of the NDA, Gohil said that while the economic average growth was 7.6 per cent during the 10-year-old UPA government, it was 5.9% during the NDA regime.

He said that despite half of the 10-year-old UPA rule saw financial slowdown and economic recession, the UPA government left the economy with a GDP of two trillion USD, four times more than that of $500 billion in 2004.