Govt not Opposition to be blamed for slow growth: BJP

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj on Saturday claimed that "cynicism" created by government`s lack of initiative is to be blamed for the slowdown, and not the Opposition.

New Delhi: Countering Prime Minister`s argument that "excessive pessimism" at home has hurt India`s growth process, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj on Saturday claimed that "cynicism" created by government`s lack of initiative is to be blamed for the slowdown. Speaking at the Annual General Meeting of FICCI where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had earlier taken a dig at parties opposing the reforms saying they were "ignorant of global realities or are constrained by out-dated ideologies," she said it was not the opposition but "internal differences in the government and among its allies" which were delaying key bills

"It is not pessimism but an atmosphere of cynicism... More than policy the right environment is important but here every day there are scams," Swaraj said. She maintained that the Opposition is only performing its role of the watchdog and asked the government to introspect. She said that the scams are not mere allegations levelled by the Opposition but have been unearthed by constitutional bodies like the CAG. "The Prime Minister says the opposition does not allow Bills to be passed. I want to clarify that Bills are not being passed due to the internal differences in the government and among its allies," the BJP leader said. She mentioned the Pensions Bill and said that BJP had bailed out the government at the time of introduction when UPA did not have numbers in the House and the Left demanded a division of votes. Swaraj also hit out at Singh for making an "excuse" of coalition compulsions for some of the decisions or the delay in taking them. "We also ran a coalition government which had more constituents. There were 24 parties in the NDA. Manmohan Singh is the Prime Minister but he is neither the leader of his party nor of the country." The BJP leader said programmes like the golden quadrilateral and Prime Minister Gramin Sadak yojana are moving at a slow pace while interlinking of rivers has been abandoned. She pointed out that the Opposition is in no way responsible for this. "We are a responsible opposition. We do not oppose just for the sake of opposing," Swaraj said. The principal opposition rued that "cynicism" in the country is forcing investors to tighten their purse strings or invest abroad and suggested that a national entrepreneur policy be formulated. Swaraj asked the industry bodies to hold a roundtable dialogue where government, opposition, industrialists, as well as CAG, CVC and CBI director are invited to discuss the national issues and the reasons behind them. "A national dialogue will end this cynicism in the country," Swaraj said. PTI