PM, Sonia 'unstuck' arrangement responsible for economic crisis: Sinha

New Delhi, Aug.10 (ANI): Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha on Friday said the arrangement between Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has come unstuck, and is responsible for the Indian economy deteriorating.

Sinha, who was reacting to a Moody's Analytics of the Indian Government, said, "Our polity demands that the Prime Minister should be able to lead the country both in Parliament and outside Parliament, and abroad.

"The arrangement between Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, which was made in 2004, that she will look after politics, she will be the leader, and he will be the Prime Minister, was flawed from the beginning, because this kind of distinction cannot be made in our polity. Our polity demands that the Prime Minister should be the unquestioned leader of his party, he should be the unquestioned leader of the government, and he, therefore, should be able to lead the country, both in Parliament and outside Parliament, and abroad," said Sinha.

"Unfortunately, in the last over eight years, Dr. Manmohan Singh has singularly failed to do so. And, the whole arrangement has come unstuck and, the world is now looking at it and especially the adverse impact that it is having on governance," he added.

Sinha pointed out that this was not for the first time that the Indian Prime Minister has been criticized by a foreign institution, or the foreign media.

"Whoever has said it, has hit the nail on the head, because this is absolutely correct. But my problem is that this comes from Moody's, which is a foreign rating agency. And, they have also said that if Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, does not get his act together, then he will soon become a lame duck Prime Minister," said Sinha.

"This is not the first time that a foreign institution, or the foreign media has criticized our Prime Minister. Four months ago, the Economist of London had already described Manmohan Singh as a lame duck Prime Minister," he added.

Sinha further said that he felt ashamed on a personal note to see such a criticism coming for the Indian Prime Minister.

"Now, however, true this criticism may be. Let me add that I feel very humiliated as an Indian, because Dr. Manmohan Singh is not an individual, he is the Prime Minister of a great country like India, and that he should be called an underachiever," said Sinha.

"And generally, coming for this kind of very very blunt and harsh criticism from the foreign media, is something, which is difficult for me to stomach as an Indian, but unfortunately, as I said in the beginning, all this is true. You can fight a blatant untruth, you can't fight truth," he added.

The Indian Government is the 'single biggest factor weighing on business confidence and the economic outlook', Moody's Analytics said yesterday, while revising downwards the GDP estimate for Asia's third-largest economy to 5.5 percent in 2012-13.

It said the economic slowdown in India was sharper and more broad-based than anticipated and was now deeply entrenched across all sectors of the economy.

The agency, which is a division of Moody's Corporation, said the slowdown was the most pronounced in the country's corporate sector.

Moody's Analytics said in its report that the Indian Prime Minister has one final opportunity to salvage his legacy

It may be recalled here that the global ratings agency Standard and Poor's had earlier in June cautioned that India could be the first among BRIC countries at risk of losing its investment-grade rating due to slowing GDP growth and political roadblocks to reforms.

S and P had said that a divided leadership at the Centre might be the biggest hurdle to reforms. (ANI)