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Friday, Sep 01, 2006

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NDA's policies not a success: Chidambaram

Special Correspondent

Economic growth has been 7% a quarter during UPA Government's tenure "In the case of the NDA Government, as it approached the end of its tenure, it appeared to me like a football team that kicked and pushed the ball aimlessly while waiting for the referee's final whistle"

NEW DELHI: Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday said that while the previous National Democratic Alliance regime's macro-economic management was not a "great success," the United Progressive Alliance Government had delivered. The overall economic growth during its tenure had been over seven per cent in each quarter.

Taking a dig at the NDA regime's style of economic management while delivering the J.R.D. Tata Memorial Lecture here, he said: "In the case of the NDA Government, as it approached the end of its tenure, it appeared to me like a football team that kicked and pushed the ball aimlessly while waiting for the referee's final whistle."

Highlighting the UPA Government's achievements during the lecture on `Economic Policy-making in a Coalition Era' organised by Assocham, he said the most striking feature of the economy during the last 10 quarters was the fact that the country's GDP witnessed uninterrupted and sustained growth in each quarter.

Noting that in a coalition regime, patience and perseverance were essential to achieve victory, the Finance Minister pointed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's way of convincing allies that reservation in higher educational institutions could go hand in hand with excellence. Dr. Singh convinced the coalition partners that while introducing reservation, it would be wise to seize the opportunity to meet the aspirations of all sections by vastly expanding the capacity of the institutions, he said.

Mr. Chidambaram also highlighted the other economic achievements of the UPA Government such as tax revenue collections, external trade, foreign direct investment and foreign institutional investor inflows to drive home the point that the Government was generally supportive of macro-economic policies that favoured openness, liberalisation and globalisation.

The NDA Government, he said, failed to deliver a growth rate of more than 6.5 per cent in any year, except in 2003-04, during its tenure at the Centre.

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