UPA pushing India to brink: Narendra Modi on S&P report

AHMEDABAD: Taking on the UPA government over Standard and Poor's threat to downgrade India's ranking, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said the government is pushing the country "to the brink".

"Congress-led UPA's toxic combination of poor economic decisions, lack of reforms and political roadblocks is pushing India to the brink", Modi said.

Standard and Poor's (S&P) in its report released yesterday 'Will India Be The First BRIC Fallen Angel?' said: "Slowing GDP growth and political roadblocks to economic policy making could put India at risk of losing its investment grade rating".

"UPA government has given a nine-year low GDP growth in a quarter. With monsoons deficient till now, where are we heading toward as a nation?" Modi twitted on the social networking site.

Taking a dig at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Modi went on the tweet, "S&P says division of roles between "powerful" Cong president and "appointed" PM has weakened policy making framework and caused political vacuum".

The S&P report had said: "Moreover, paramount political power rests with the leader of the Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, who holds no Cabinet position, while the government is led by an unelected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who lacks a political base of his own".

He also mocked the rejection of the S&P report by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

"UPA's outright rejection of S&P's blunt assessment of India's economic reality does not really come as a surprise", Modi said.

Standard and Poor's had lowered India's rating outlook to 'negative' from 'stable' in April this year.