 "Why is Modi staging fake encounter with facts, asks Chidambaram")
A day after Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi slammed the UPA for a slowing economy, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said that if there was a ‘golden period of growth’, it was under UPA and not during the NDA rule as claimed by the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate.
“Modi’s claim that India grew at 8.4 per cent during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government is false.If there was a golden period of growth, it was the five year period under UPA 1,” Chidambaram told reporters today.
Chidambaram pointed out the GDP growth rates for six years under the Vajpayee government were as follows:1989-89 (6.7%), 1999-00 (7.6%), 2000-01 (4.3%), 2001-02 (5.5%), 2002-03 (4.0%), 2003-04 (8.1%).
“I wonder why Narendra Modi should stage a fake encounter with facts,” Chidambaram said.
[caption id=“attachment_1127405” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  P Chidambaram said the claims made by Modi were false. Reuters[/caption]
The Finance Minister said that thetwo worst years since the turn of the century were 2000-01 and 2002-03, when the country was under the Vajpayee government.
Chidambaram also said that the average growth for NDA’s 6-year administration was 6 percent.
In contrast, he said, the average growth during UPA1 was 8.4 percent and during the first 4 years ofUPA2 the average has been 7.3 percent.
While addressing his NRI supporters via video conference on Sunday,BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modislammed the UPA government over various issues including slow growth rate, and said that people have lost faith in the present government.
Modi said that people are looking at BJP to bring about a positive change in the nation and expressed hope that the 2014 General Elections will be a repeat of 1977.
“Like 1977, 2014 will be the voice of the people,” he said.
Praising the six-year tenure of NDA under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and party’s veteran leader LK Advani, Modi said, “Under Vajpayee government it looked like that the 21st century would be the century of India. But with his departure, the downfall started.”
He said that the growth rate was 8.4 per cent but it came down to 4.8 per cent during the UPA’s rule.
Taking a jibe at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said that scholars are good for winning debates but cannot bring changes.
He asked the UPA government to present a performance report of the nine-year rule from which it is “running away”.
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