New Delhi : Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia said the growth rate targets set by the NDA government in its first budget are too low to satisfy the ambitions of the people.
”You have promised to achieve a growth rate of 7-8 percent GDP over the next five years. But you must remember that for the first five years of the UPA, we have delivered above 9 percent growth and our average for ten years was 7.6 percent.
“This growth rate targeted by you is too low to be all inclusive, and as a country our growth process cannot be like an island, it must be like a sea that involves all,” he said.Leading the Congress attack on the first NDA budget, Scindia said it was a compliment for the UPA that the NDA had accepted its key financial targets.
“Our revenue target and our fiscal deficit roadmap of 4.6 percent this year, 4.1 percent next year and 3.6 percent for the subsequent year and an eventual target of 3 percent have been accepted,” he said while observing that imitation is the best form of flattery. He, however, did not agree with the oft-repeated government’s slogan of ‘minimum government, maximum governance.’ “One does not necessarily follow the other. Governance requires capacity building, and to be able to create that capacity, you need to devote a lot of resources,” he said.Scindia, who was frequently interrupted by the treasury benches, drew their ire when he referred to the massive haul of cash from the premises of one of the BJP MPs. The reference in the context of black money led to noisy protests from the BJP, and finally the speaker Sumitra Mahajan ruled that any objectionable references would be deleted from the proceedings.
