Sonia targets Modi government, questions its performance

New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday hit out at the Narendra Modi government over price rise, unemployment, FDI, recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission and questioned the GDP figures. Gandhi also attacked the government on the issue of corruption in BJP-ruled states. Addressing the Congress parliamentary party meeting here, Gandhi said: "When it comes to growth and GDP figures they tout, questions on their veracity are raised even by their own party leaders". "The BJP blocked every important FDI initiative of the UPA government. Yet now it has put in place a free-for-all policy even in a sensitive area like defence," she said. On the issue of job creation, Gandhi said the government in the past two years sought to create a 'bubble' of achievement. "Job creation has not only been its lowest in six years but retrenchment of industrial workers and loss of tens of thousands of jobs in the export manufacturing sector has added to the misery of the youth and the poor. There has been a continuous decline in exports over the last 18 months," Gandhi said. "Contrary to the claims that India has turned power-surplus, power shortages continue to be endemic," she added. According to Gandhi, prices of essential commodities, especially food items, are at an all-time high. "The Modi government's hollow claims on inflation have been exposed recently by no less than the Reserve Bank Governor (Raghuram Rajan). The widespread distress in rural areas seems to be of no concern to the Modi government," she alleged. She further said the Modi government was defying labour unions and reducing the security of their savings. "The recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission have done injustice to the government employees and armed forces, resulting in discontent," Gandhi said. She said the Panchayat Raj Ministry established by the previous UPA government was being starved of funds and slowly driven into extinction. The Congress President also took on the government on the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) scam, and mentioned alleged scandals in other BJP-run states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. "The opaqueness of the Modi government in decision-making and brazen promotion of cronyism has cast a dark shadow on its integrity," Gandhi alleged.