It's fashionable to criticise Congress, says Manish Tewari

While the recently published report by the financial rating agency Standard and Poor’s squarely blamedUPA government’s poor leadership for the economic crisis, Congress still maintains that everything is fine at the top.

“Do not parrot the Indian economy word to word. The fact is that if there would not have been a strong political leadership, the Indian economy would not have grown at the record level it grew in the last eight years,” Congress spokesperson and MPManish Tewari told CNN-IBN.

When asked about the range of criticism levelled against the Congress for mismanaging the economy, Tewari said, “It is fashionableto take pot shots at us these days because we are in the ninth year of government.”

“We accept all the criticism and take it in our stride and will take steps which are necessary to revive domestic demand and send out the right signals to international investors,” Tewari said.

In its report titled Will India Be the First BRIC Fallen Angel?, Standard and Poor’s observes, “Slowing GDP growth and political roadblocks to economic policymaking could put India at risk of losing its investment-grade rating.”