White paper or Whitewash?

 White paper or Whitewash?

The Finance Minister of India presented a white paper on 8th of Feb' 2024 in the Parliament of India. It accused the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Govt of leaving the economy in a bad shape, rather, "crisis" after 10 years of the their rule under Dr Manmohan Singh. The document also claimed that the UPA Govt inherited a "healthy economy" from the NDA Govt led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and left for their successors a "non-performing" economy.

Although the party in power is expected to return to power, the timing of tabling the white paper, that has nothing but accusations of the previous Govt is raising many eye-brows.

In it, the BJP said it faced a "hydra-headed challenge" in fixing the Indian economy and "restoring its fundamentals to sound health", noting it received one of the world's more fragile economies. "... now, we are among the 'top five' (and) making the third highest contribution to global growth..."

It also mentioned, ""Then, the world lost confidence in India's economic potential and dynamism. Now, with our economic stability and growth prospects, we inspire hope in others. Then, we had a scam-riddled 12-day Commonwealth Games. Now, we successfully hosted a far-bigger and year-long G20 Presidency in 2023, showcasing India at its best... (and) providing acceptable solutions to global problems."

The white paper referred to a number of scams and corruption cases that marked the 10 years of the UPA government, including the 2G and Coalgate scandals. It also highlighted the serious economic concerns like double-digit inflation, the foreign exchange crisis, and a "policy paralysis" that affected investment despite the so-called Economy-Expert leading the Government.

The white paper had a comparitive statement for every issue it raised. If 2G corruption was mentioned, it detailed how the 4G execution had happened. It said, "Now, we have extensive coverage of the population under 4G, with the lowest rates and the world's fastest rollout of 5G in 2023. Then, we had the Coalgate scam. Now, we have built systems for transparent and objective auctions to harness natural resources..."

"Then, we had double-digit inflation. Now, inflation has been brought down to (a) little over five per cent. Then, we had a foreign exchange crisis. Now, we have record foreign exchange reserves of over USD 620 billion. Then, we had 'policy-paralysis'; infrastructure was not a priority. Now, (there is) the virtuous cycle of investment, growth, employment and entrepreneurship, and savings..."

"In sum, the progress achieved in the ten years of our government has overcome the malaise and paralysis of the previous ten years of the UPA government. In 2024, confidence and purpose have replaced the diffidence and drift of 2014..." the white paper declared.

In a nutshell, the so-called WHITE PAPER was nothing but a political propaganda or a political statement. There is nothing new or informative in the white paper presented. If the Government was so keen on tabling a White Paper on the Indian Economy comparing the decade of UPA with the decade of NDA, they shoudl have appointed a group of neutral experts who should have considered the global equations at various points of time.

To me, this is more of a White wash than a white paper that kept on bragging about the Government. What do you say?