"White Paper Exposed Congress," Says Anurag Thakur

Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh) [India] : Union Minister Anurag Thakur said on Sunday that the 'White Paper' presented by the Centre on Indian Economy in Parliament has 'exposed' the Congress.

Anurag Thakur, during a visit to Dharamshala, told, "The White Paper has exposed the Congress...Family was important for Congress. The policies of Congress have caused great harm to the country..."

"The question arises: how did Congress keep looting the country? How did it keep pushing the country backward...We remained silent for the last 10 years in the interest of the country. If we had wanted, we could have brought the white paper earlier also," he said.

The document, which has been prepared by the Ministry of Finance, essentially compares the 10-year record of economic governance under the Congress-led UPA governments (between 2004-05 and 2013-14) with the 10-year record of the BJP-led NDA governments (between 2014-15 and 2023-24).

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday alleged that the Congress-led UPA government did not capitalise on the positive economic environment that it inherited from the Vajpayee government and there was "ill-targeted, reckless fiscal policy, ill-targeted subsidies and wasteful expenditure for political gains".

"Gur ko gobar karna Congress ki mastery hai (Congress is expert in frittering away advantage)," she said in her reply to the debate on White Paper On Indian Economy in Rajya Sabha. The paper seeks to compare 10 years of the UPA government with 10 years of the BJP-led government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

She said the government did not bring the White Paper earlier to avoid an adverse impact on the economy in terms of investor sentiment as the "entire world was using the term 'Fragile Five' for our economy."

"Today, when we are bringing the White Paper, it is because we have brought the economy to a certain level and that level gives us the confidence that we are able to now say that within the next few years, and that is why the PM keeps saying 'In my third term surely the economy will reach third rank.' This is not without reason," she said.