Government lacks political honesty: Congress on Make in India campaign

NEW DELHI: Terming the government's "Make in India" campaign as "mere repackaging and rebranding" of the earlier initiatives taken during the UPA rule, Congress today accused the Centre of "lacking political honesty".

"It is surprising that there is nothing new in it. It is just repackaging and rebranding the initiatives that were taken up during the UPA government.

"This staged event conveys lack of political honesty in correctly informing the nation that these steps were taken by the UPA government," party spokesperson and former Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said.

His reaction came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the campaign, saying his government's focus will be on physical infrastructure creation as well as creating a digital network for making India a hub for global manufacturing of goods ranging from cars to softwares, satellites to submarines and paper to power.

Holding that in the last two-three years "companies were looking to move out of country", Modi said the three months of the NDA government has reversed the mood with its focus on easing the process of doing business in the country.

Congress leader Sharma, however, reminded that the Union Cabinet had in October 2011 itself approved the National Manufacturing Policy when the UPA government was in power.

Regarding the Prime Minister's remarks that his government's focus will be on physical infrastructure creation as also on a digital network for making India a hub for global manufacturing of goods, Sharma said that there were already portals of Invest India, which cover every continent and they have already signed 12 MoUs.

"There is a dedicated portal, which was launched at the Africa-India Forum Summit in Addis Ababa in May 2011," the former Commerce Minister said.

He said that the government is talking of things like manufaturing and others as if they are new and did not exist in the past, which is "far away from the truth".