After Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the centre's decision to release a 'White Paper' comparing Indian economy before and after 2014, the opposition Congress is planning to come up with a 'Black Paper' to counter it.
The 'Black Paper' will analyse 10 years of governance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and is being created by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, ANI quoted unnamed sources.
This came as Sitharaman, in her interim budget speech, said that the central government would release a 'White Paper' comparing the state of the Indian economy before and after 2014. "The crisis of those years has been overcome, and the economy has been put firmly on a high sustainable growth path with all-round development. It is now appropriate to look at where we were then till 2014 and where we are now, only for the purpose of drawing lessons from the mismanagement of those years. The government will lay a White Paper on the table of the House," the finance minister had said in her speech on February 1.
The Congress move on Black Paper also comes amid the Prime Minister's claim that the government has taken bold and big policy decisions resulting in India becoming the fifth largest economy in the world. He added that the Indian economy was in the Fragile Five category during UPA rule.
To this, Kharge had hit back in a post on X, accusing the Prime Minister of saying "countless false things" against the previous UPA governments.
"Modiji, in your speeches in both the Houses, you only cursed the Congress. Despite being in power for 10 years, instead of talking about himself, he only criticises the Congress party. Even today, he did not talk about price rise, unemployment and economic inequality," Kharge alleged.
"Modi ki Guarantee is only to spread lies," he asserted.
He questioned why the unemployment rate, which stood at 2.2 per cent during the UPA era, has surged to a 45-year high under the current government's tenure. "Modiji said countless false things about the UPA government. I want to ask -- the unemployment rate during the UPA rule was 2.2 per cent, why is it at a 45-year high in your tenure?" Kharge asked.
