Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Hitting out at BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for lauding the growth rate during Atal Behari Vajpayee’s tenure as PM, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday taunted the Gujarat Chief Minister for what he termed "staging a fake encounter with facts".
"Wonder why Narendra Modi should stage a fake encounter with facts. Ultimately, facts will prevail," Mr Chidambaram said in a statement, adding, "The average growth rate during Atal Behari Vajpayee`s tenure was six per cent."
Yesterday, Modi, while addressing the Indian diaspora, had said, "I want to tell the Congress friends, do you at least agree that when Vajpayee Government was there growth rate was 8.4 per cent but now it is 4.8 per cent under this (UPA) Government?"
The Finance Minister said the two worst years of growth since the turn of the century were 2001-02 (4.3 percent) and 2002-03 (4 percent) and pointed out that the average growth rate for UPA-1 was 8.4 percent. The last four years of UPA-II saw growth of 7.3 percent, he added.
