NEW DELHI: Amid declining value of Rupeeand meltdown in stock market, Opposition parties today attacked Prime MinisterManmohan Singh over handling of theeconomy and demanded a change in policy direction as they warned that the situationcould worsen.
The parties, including BJP and CPI(M) said the country is facing an economic situation like that in 1991 when the government was close to default, with foreign exchange reserves sliding to such a point that India could barely finance three weeks’ worth of imports.
“The Prime Minister has the image of an economist and not that of a mass leader who helped in winning elections. But this image has been dented after his speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort that the situation will not worsen to the extent of the one that prevailed in 1991. But the economic situation today is worse,” BJP spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters.
He was speaking after the party’s workshop for media where Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley highlighted the failures of the government on handling of the economic situation.
“If prices rise, we may eat little less. If onion prices rise, we may have less onions. But if there is imbalance in foreign exchange, then a crisis like in 1991 will develop, which has almost come. The government is totally helpless. It is not able to face the challenge,” BJP leader and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said.
CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, while targeting the Prime Minister for saying again that globalisation policy will continue, said the country has been taken towards a situation like the major financial crisis of 1991.
“For the people, the situation has been regressive. Therefore, we want a change in the policy direction,” he said.
Questioning what globalisation means for the Prime Minister, he said “the beneficiaries of these reforms have been the big Indian capital and foreign capital.”
“The Prime Minister has virtually failed to tackle the situation,” Yechury said.(economictimes)
