oppn parties White Paper & Black Paper Duel Ahead Of Lok Sabha Elections

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  • Competition Commission of India has said that smartphone majors are colluding with e-commerce firms to exclusively launch products on their platforms in alleged breach of anti-trust laws
  • Supreme Court rules that delay in claiming compensation for land acquisition by the government is no excuse to deny it as it is the duty of the government to pay the compensation.
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  • Conbgress has alleged that Sebi chief Madhabi Buch traded in listed securities and invested in China-focused funds during her tnure at the agency
  • India to sing $4bn Predator drone deal with US
  • Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has disclosed that the opposition parties backed him as Prime Minister in place of Narendra Modi but he refused.
  • Noted economist Ajit Ranade removed as VC of Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics in Pune due to not fulfilling eligibility criteria related to teaching experience
  • Chess Olympiad: Arjun Erigaisi wins his fourth consecutive game
  • Asian Champions Trophy hockey- India beat Pakistan 2-1 in a tough match to remain unbeaten in the group stage. They will meet Korea in the semifinals
  • Davis Cup: S Balaji and R Ramanathan lose, India 0-2 down on first day
  • Delhi Police arrested Sangram Dass, said to be the kingpin of an inter-state new-born baby tafficking racket, from Kolkata after a 1500-km chase
  • NC leader Omar Abdullah alleged that the B|JP was forging secret deals with some regional parties and independents to form the government in J&K
  • Rajasthan Police has devised a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), as directed by the Rajasthan HC, to help married and live-in couples facing threats from families and others. It icludes helplines and safe houses
  • A 3-storey building collapsed in the busy Transport Nager area in Lucknow killing 8 and injuring 28 others
Junior doctors do not agree to meet Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee without live-streaming of meeting /////// CBI arrests ex-principal of R G Kar College Sandip Ghosh and OC of Tala PS in Kolkata, Abhijit Mondal' for destrcution of evidence in the rape-murder case
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White Paper & Black Paper Duel Ahead Of Lok Sabha Elections

By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2024-02-14 03:30:49

As promised by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her interim Budget speech, the Centre came out with a white paper on the alleged mismanagement of the economy during 10 years of UPA rule between 2004 and 2014. Obviously, the paper is overtly selective and decidedly political. While there is much to condemn for what went on during those UPA years and much to recommend for what has been going on after NDA came to power in 2014, all things in both periods are not only in black and white and the UPA years also had some silver linings as the NDA years have their black spots. The white paper conveniently ignores the good things in UPA rule and glosses over the mistakes in the NDA period. Hence, while it may be good as a political statement, it is not a fully truthful report card on the state of the economy under UPA.

The paper rightly says that the UPA inherited a sound economy (but forgets to mention that it was as much due to economic liberalization under P V Narasimha Rao as due to the subsequent reforms of the Atal Behari Vajpayee government). It goes on to say that it turned the economy fragile and India began to be included in the five most fragile economies of the world. This, it says, was due to the policy paralysis under UPA as well as rampant corruption (it listed 15 major scams), leakages in welfare schemes, high inflation, low capital expenditure and indiscriminate lending by PSU banks that almost brought the financial sector to its knees. In contrast, the paper says that the NDA government, through its prudent and effective policies from 2014, has turned around most PSU banks and the Indian financial sector is one of the most stable in the world now.  This is, by and large, true. The NDA government has also rightly increased capital expenditure to build assets for the nation instead of spending money thoughtlessly in sundry schemes.

But where the white paper suffers is in comparing the job situation and the state of the people between 2004 and 2014 and then between 2014 and 2024. It is also silent on the disruption caused by demonetization. The level of joblessness was high in the first period. It has remained high in the second period also. Although there is no denying that the NDA government has had to bear the twin shocks of the pandemic and geopolitical disruptions but the state of the people has not shown any significant improvement. The Congress came up with a 'black' paper to highlight the anti-people economic policies of the NDA government which, it said, have increased joblessness, led to farmer suicides and high inflation and complete devastation of the economy.