First Congress-BJP face-off in Parliament after Modi govt

New Delhi: In the first face-off in Parliament after the Lok Sabha polls, Congress on Tuesday tore into the Narendra Modi dispensation`s agenda and asked it to work without "arrogance" while the government slammed the previous UPA rule as being responsible for bad state of the economy.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Manmohan Singh government had left the country with low growth, high inflation, low tax collection and "elevated" poverty and vowed to resurrect the economy with a strong Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the helm. In his first speech as a minister, Jaitley also sought to allay apprehensions on account of treatment to minorities, saying the government will have a "compassionate" and non-discriminatory" approach and will take "strongest" steps to ensure social harmony and national security. Quoting Modi`s oft-repeated statement that participation of states was important for country`s growth, he said the government will take states along irrespective of "political colour" and address their issues. Intervening during debate on Motion of Thanks on the President`s address in the Rajya Sabha, Jaitley said NDA has come to power riding on "high expectations" of people which has put greater "burden" on the government to perform. "The message of the last elections was clear -- perform or perish," he said, adding that the UPA had been voted out of power because of its "bad performance" and the NDA won due to "anti-incumbency" and "hopes" in BJP, particularly Modi. The government will work for pushing the country`s growth which has been stuck at the "disappointing" level of less than five per cent for the last two years.