Yashwant Sinha slams UPA, says 'Basu has merely stated truth'

New Delhi, Apr 20 (ANI): Charging the Congress-led UPA Government of putting the blame on others for the nation's economic crisis, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha on Friday said Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu had merely stated the truth that major economic reforms are unlikely to happen before the next general elections in 2014.

"I am not at all surprised at what the Chief Economic Advisor of the Government of India, Mr. Kaushik Basu, has told the foreign investors in Washington. The fact of the matter is that this government has been suffering from paralysis in decision-making. Today, it (government) is on a ventilator and Kaushik Basu has merely stated the truth. He has said that we cannot expect any movement on the economic front until the next elections are over in 2014," said Sinha.

"The government is all the time blaming other people. They are blaming the international financial crisis, they are blaming the state governments, they are blaming the opposition parties, they are blaming now the businessmen and corporates. They are blaming everyone except themselves. The fact of the matter is government alone and government itself is responsible for this paralysis, for this state of affairs, and Mr. Kaushik Basu has stated the truth," he added.

Yashwant Sinha, who was the Finance Minister of the country during the NDA regime, also pointed out that India has the potential to move ahead, but the government does not have the willpower to take it forward.

"India has the potential, strength to move ahead. But the government of the day does not have the strength or willpower to take it forward and that is the whole problem today that there are so many contradictions within the government, within the ruling party, within the coalition party, that they are not able to move forward. The government is not prepared to put its existence at stake; this is what they should do because the country is facing an economic crisis," said Sinha.

"The latest monthly figures of inflation, especially the food inflation, will show that we are near double digit already and therefore this one problem the government has not been able to get the better of, has not been able to solve, in the last three years. And this is the root cause of all the problems that we are witnessing in the economy today," he added.

Basu earlier said reforms are unlikely before the 2014 elections.

"We are going through a difficult year. (After 2014), you would see a rush of important reforms and after 2015 India would be one of the fastest growing economies of the world. The new government, if in a majority, would start with the reforms in a big way because there is a sense that it needs to pick up," he said, while addressing a meeting at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an eminent Washington-based think tank, on Wednesday. (ANI)