On implementation, government's first year like 'abandoned test match': Congress

NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government's first year in office is "more like an abandoned test match", Congress said today seeking to puncture the celebratory mood and claims of achievements by the NDA.

"The one year of Modi government is like T-20 as regards tall promises, one day cricket as regards major announcements and pronouncements, but is like an abandoned test match when it comes to implementation," party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters.

Hitting out at the Prime Minister, he said Modi's one-year rule witnessed promises like "sixers" and "fours" in T-20 and saw announcements like "swashbuckling cricket" in a one day match, but was a damp squib on the implementation front, like an "abandoned test match".

Citing the example of BJP's poll promise of creation of 250 million jobs in 10 years, he said job creation was the lowest in the period with a survey claiming that there was generation of only 1.17 lakh jobs in the October-December 2014 period. "Where are the 25 million jobs," he asked.

On the issue of cleaning the Ganga, Singhvi was equally caustic claiming that Modi after becoming Prime Minister had declared that he would clean the river within a year while Union minister Uma Bharati said the task will take three years, but the Supreme Court has observed the way things are going, it cannot be cleaned for 200 years.

Last September, the apex court in a sharp critique had observed that the Centre's action plan may not help clean the river Ganga "even after 200 years".

The Congress spokesman was also critical of the Modi dispensation on the issue of "profiteering" from the slide in the global crude prices alleging that the government had earned Rs 80,000 crore from "cheating the common man".

While the growth rate in agriculture was the lowest in the last one year, he said it was just one per cent as against four per cent in the UPA rule. The decline in the rate is reflective in the agrarian crisis and spate of suicides by farmers, he said.

Noting that several core sectors have seen negative growth in the past one year, he said that exports have dipped by two per cent while imports have rose.

Besides, he said the handling of issues like MAT has resulted in investors losing Rs two lakh crore of capital.

Singhvi said that the Congress would keep up the offensive in the week ahead to expose NDA's claims projecting that the country has become a land of milk and honey in the past one year. The Modi government completes one year on May 25.