The Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, presented a 'White Paper' on the Indian economy in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, February 8. The presentation was made by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The document accused the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of experiencing a "crisis," marked by alleged economic mismanagement, financial indiscipline, and widespread corruption, before the BJP came to power in 2014.
The report suggested that the UPA government's decade of governance from 2004-2014 "(or its absence)" was marked by policy misadventures and scams, such as the non-transparent auction of public resources (coal and telecom spectrum), the spectre of retrospective taxation, unsustainable demand stimulus, ill-targeted subsidies, and reckless lending by the banking sector with undertones of favoritism, etc. The White Paper highlighted that the 2G spectrum scam, involving 122 telecom licenses that had sliced ₹1.76 lakh crore off the exchequer as per the estimates of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the coal gate scam costing ₹1.86 lakh crore to the exchequer, the Commonwealth Games (CWG) scam, etc., indicated an environment of heightened political uncertainty and reflected poorly on India's image as an investment destination.
Talking about the 80:20 gold export-import scheme, the report alleged that the scheme provided illegitimate windfall gains to the beneficiaries before it was withdrawn by our government.
The White Paper also listed some of the high-profile cases like Coal Block Allocation, Commonwealth Games, 2G spectrum allocation, Saradha Chit Fund, INX Media Case, Land for Jobs, Allotment or release of Prime Land in Panchkula and Gurgaon, J&K Cricket Association, Aircel-Maxis case, Antrix-Devas Deal and Adarsh Housing scam.
It also included some of the high-profile cases in the aviation and aerospace sector like Embraer Deal, Hawk aircraft purchase, Augusta Westland helicopter scam and Pilatus Basic Trainer Aircraft. The document pointed out that poor policy planning and execution also resulted in large unspent funds for many social sector schemes during the UPA years, which in turn crippled the effectiveness of the government’s schemes.
The White Paper compared the "scam-riddled" Commonwealth Games, 2G scam, and Coal gate scam during the UPA government with the Modi government’s success at hosting G20 Presidency, extensive 4G coverage and 5G rollout, and auctions for harnessing natural resources, respectively.
(Edited by : Anand Singha)
First Published: Feb 8, 2024 10:45 PM IST
