Dubai: Unwilling to let criticism by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) go unanswered without a suitable riposte, a senior member of the Congress Party dismissed assertions that the responsibility for the current crisis rested with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Speaking to Gulf News, Rajiv Shukla, the Congress party’s Deputy Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha, endorsed Singh’s credentials saying, “This is the same PM who was at the helm when the term ‘India Shining’ was coined, forcing US President Barack Obama to admit that India had emerged.
“This is also the same man who as finance minister, under former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao, saved a bankrupt country from ruin with a historic transition to globalization.”
Manmohan Singh was a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India when he was appointed by Rao to breathe life into a dead Indian economy.
The reason for the current crisis, according to Shukla, “Was a global phenomena. India has been impacted. Saying that the prime minister is solely responsible is wrong.”
Shukla stated that allegations that the government was bankrupt were, “rubbish”. Steps are being taken to rectify the problem. It is not going to be like 1991 - when a caretaker Janata Dal Socialist government, headed by Prime Minister Chandra Sekhar, was facing bankruptcy and was on the verge of defaulting on its external balance of payment obligations. The Congress then came to power and put India on the road to prosperity.”
Commenting on Rudy’s assessment that the BJP would take at least two years to rectify the crisis if they came into power Shukla said, “That’s exactly why they shouldn’t come to power. We have 10 months to go before the elections and we will repair the situation.”
