White paper to be tabled soon, will focus on impact of mismanagement of economy during UPA regime, says Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said that the Centre plans to table white paper in Parliament soon which will focus on the impact of the mismanagement of the economy during the previous regime. In an exclusive interview to News 18 Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi, Sitharaman said, “White paper will focus on the impact of the mismanagement of the economy during the previous regime. The white paper will talk about all the steps that were immoral and what kind of positive impact the right steps could have had on the economy then.” “We lost 10 glorious years… Every area of the economy was ridden by problems from banks to minerals,” added the Finance Minister. She said the government did not put out the white paper earlier as it did not want people to lose faith in it and institutions. “So, the PM first restored the economy, which is why a white paper was not put out earlier. The PM is never in favour of quick twists and turns,” she added. Sitharaman said the era is changing. “People don’t like corrupt leaders,” she said. After presenting the Interim Budget on February 1, Sitharaman said white paper will look at where the country was till 2014 and where it is now. The Finance Minister had said that when the BJP-led NDA government came to power in 2014, its responsibility was enormous. “The need of the hour was to give hope to the people, to attract investments, and to build support for the much-needed reforms. The government did that successfully following our strong belief of ’nation-first’,” she said. According to her, the exemplary track record of governance, development, and performance, effective delivery, and Jan Kalyan had given the government trust, confidence, and blessings of the people. Sitharaman had said “based on its stupendous work”, the government will be blessed again by the people with a resounding mandate this year. Sitharaman on Thursday presented her sixth consecutive budget with a speech lasting 56 minutes, her shortest-ever. She presented the Modi government’s achievements in the last 10 years that transformed India from being a ‘fragile’ economy to the world’s fastest-growing major economy. Sitharaman also holds the distinction of delivering the longest budget speech at 2.40 hours in 2020. In 2019, as India’s first full-time woman finance minister, Sitharaman’s budget speech had lasted for two hours and 17 minutes. In 2021, her speech lasted for one hour and 50 minutes, followed by 92 minutes in 2022 and 87 minutes in 2023. The Lok Sabha elections are likely to be held in April-May this year. With inputs from agencies