New Delhi: Finance Minister P Chidambaram yesterday said that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate of main opposition BJP, is staging a “fake encounter with facts” while claiming 8.4 percent growth during Atal Behari Vajpayee-led central government between 1998 and 2004.
The Bharatiya Janata Party retorted by saying Chidambaram was “hiding behind the law of averages”. “Narendra Modi is reported to have said that the growth rate during the period of the Vajpayee government was 8.4 percent. Nothing can be further from the truth,” Chidambaram said.
Modi, addressing NRI supporters via video conference on Sunday, had said that the growth rate was 8.4 percent during the BJP government led by Vajpayee but it came down to 4.8 percent during the UPA’s rule.
Chidambaram said the average growth rate during the six-year tenure of Vajpayee government was 6 percent. “By contrast, the average for UPA-I was 8.4 percent... the first four years of UPA-II, the average has been 7.3 percent,” he said.
The first five-year term of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) ended in 2009. UPA-II was formed in 2009 and its term expires next year.
“I wonder why Narendra Modi should stage a fake encounter with facts. Ultimately, facts will prevail,” Chidambaram said.
The BJP said Chidambaram’s statement was factually incorrect. “Chidamabaram is hiding under the law of averages. When the NDA left power, India’s growth rate was 8.4 percent. Now under the UPA the GDP growth rate has fallen to 4.8 percent,” BJP leader Ravishankar Prasad said.
IANS
