Let's get a white paper out & have an objective debate: Analysts

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an interview with Network18 took a swipe at the Congress, saying he should have placed a white paper on the state of the economy before his first Budget. But national interest came before political instinct as the revelations would have further depressed the industry and markets.Speaking to CNN-News18, Tom Vadakkan, Congress spokesperson, said that in the last two and half years during which the NDA government has been in power, the PM has gone on record to say that the GDP is the highest now. That is a false claim, he said, adding that during the NDA regime, the total FDI during the UPA regime put together was USD 193 million. ‘Now tell me who is fudging the figures?””

GVL Narasimha Rao, BJP spokesperson, answered that P Chidambaram who was the then Finance Minister of India was booking taxes in excess of what is possible to be booked. He postponed expenditure into this government, he said, adding that both Chidambaram and the Congress government had fudged Budget accounts.

Swapan Dasgupta, political commentator, said that there is something called ‘kitchen sinking’. It refers to a new management deciding to reveal or disseminate statistics. However, in the case of the NDA government, when it came to power, it took a conscious call not to give out the entire data, especially on fiscal deficit as it would have called into question the statistical systems internationally.

S Kulkarni, political analyst, said that that best thing now is to bring out whatever facts or figures that were not disseminated and have an objective debate on it.