The Yojna Bhawan on Friday turned into a boxing ring with Gujarat strong man Narendra Modi and the Plan panel slugging it out to outsmart each other amidst the prevailing political turmoil, economic debacle and political aspirations.
The plan meeting to finalise the state outlays for the financial year 2012-13 between Gujarat chief minister and the Planning Commission, which should otherwise be a normal exercise, witnessed a lot of fireworks from both sides, as Mr Modi missed no opportunity to tear apart the Centre for its failure on the political and economic front, the panel members, while questioning the hype around “vibrant Gujarat”, accused him for failing to improve the Human Development Index (HDI) in the state.
Sources revealed that during the meeting in which the plan size was finalised at `51,00 crores, which is around 35 per cent more than the last year, when minister of state for planning Ashwini Kumar mentioned that the Centre has provided around `23,000 crores during 2011-12 as part of the Centrally Sponsored Schemes, Mr Modi shot back asking the plan panel to let him know how much the Central government has drawn from Gujarat as revenue.
Accusing the state for its failure to jack-up agricultural production during the 11th Plan period (2007-12) vis-à-vis the 10th Plan (2002-07), Dr Kumar is learnt to have noted in the meeting that Gujarat has “slipped in ranking on the HDI”.
However, icing on the cake was still to come, as Mr Modi, while interacting with media after meeting, tore apart the PM and his government on issues relating to country’s economy and that too when Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, was standing just behind him.
Alleging that there exists a complete “policy paralysis” at the Centre, Mr Modi said, “The PM had boasted of seven per cent growth at the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas function in Jaipur a few months back. He reiterated the same in the Rajya Sabha in March. But the government of India did not have any inkling of the upcoming problems. It only got to know yesterday how steep the fall was.” He was responding to queries on GDP growth slipping to 5.3 per cent in the last quarter of 2011-12. Mr Modi claimed that at least 20 sectors of the economy are there, which have been badly hit for “lack of direction” from the government.