As the election season approaches, any issue concerning the nation has the potential to acquire political overtones. Management of the economy is no exception. No wonder that the white paper presented by union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament recently came across as an exercise in hyperbolic political messaging; an attempt to show the previous Congress-led UPA government in poor light and paint a rosy picture of the performance of the NDA government in the last ten years. At best, it was a political rant designed to peddle a narrative suitable to the present dispensation ahead of the general elections.
By selective presentation of official figures, the finance minister made a clumsy effort to paint a picture of contrast between the UPA and the NDA regimes – the former allegedly characterised by widespread corruption, poor fiscal management and policy paralysis, while the latter marked by robust performance and transformative reforms to set the economy on a recovery and growth path. It is nobody’s case that everything was hunky-dory during 2004-2014 when the UPA was in power. The Congress-led coalition government did falter in managing the economy. So did the NDA, with the spectacular failure of demonetisation and hasty rollout of the goods & services tax being two glaring examples. But to say that the UPA’s time in office was a dark chapter in the country’s history is unfair and reflects political malice. Moreover, Sitharaman conveniently sidestepped the key issues facing the nation, like shrinking jobs and wages.