Yashwant Sinha pulls up PM over economic slowdown, calls him consultant to Govt.

New Delhi, July 6 (ANI): Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha on Friday took potshots at Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh over his failure to effectively combat the economic slowdown despite remaining in power for almost eight years.

Sinha, who was the country's finance minister during the NDA regime, blamed the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre for not developing a consensus with regard to initiating economic reforms in the country.

"I think he has said the right thing, but the point is how do we achieve it? It is my belief that there is no political consensus on reforms. Governments of the day have carried out reforms, but politics of the day has not really supported reforms and Manmohan Singh should know it better than anybody else," said Sinha.

"So, while I agree with him that a reversal to an earlier era is not possible, I would also like to say that there are many who believe that the earlier era was better and the present era is not as good," he added.

Sinha took a jibe at Dr. Singh and called him a 'consultant' to the government, saying the latter could have made full use of the opportunity given to him since he has held the reins of the nation for eight years now.

"They are all platitudes. You see the problem with Manmohan Singh has been that he has always acted as a consultant to the government, saying what should be done, what need not be done. You know he has been Prime Minister for eight years, before that he was finance minister for five years and clearly, he had all the opportunity in the world to implement what he believes in," said Sinha.

"Now, at the end of eight years, he cannot say this should be done and that should be done," he added.

Sinha stated that the Prime Minister and his Cabinet cannot always put the blame on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rule for all problems occurring in the country.

"The mess is domestically created and it is the government, which has created the mess. This is something, which has to be understood. I went through his interview and I find that he is constantly offering alibis, you know and the worst part of it is that he says they had to undo what we did, when we were in the government," said Sinha.

"As if all the problems in India from 1947 onwards can be laid at the door of the NDA Government between 1998 and 2004? Why was India partitioned? Because of the NDA Government. Why is the Kashmir problem there? Because of the NDA government," he added.

Sinha backed foreign investment, but stated that they must enter the nation's territory as per the conditions set by India and not on their own terms.

"Investment is at best, in our country, has been the icing on the cake. Some foreign investment has been coming, yes more foreign investment should come, but foreign investment should come on India's terms, not on their terms and this is a policy that has been consistently followed," said Sinha.

"If he really had as much foreign investment, let's say as China had or East Asian countries had, then we would be facing the problems that those economies are facing today," he added.

Sinha further said that during the last eight years Dr. Singh's name has been dragged into several controversies; either related to the scams or economic slowdown.

Dr. Singh in an interview to a leading national daily earlier said that 'there is no realisation that a reversal to an earlier era is neither possible nor desirable; even a neighbour like China has understood the logic of an open economy and is developing the institutional framework which is required for this'. (ANI)