Jaitley takes on PM, says govt. deceiving nation

New Delhi, Aug 11 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley on Saturday hit out at Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh over his comment on Moody's forecast of the Indian economy, saying the UPA government is deceiving people of the nation.

"To believe that our investment is very high and that the fundamentals of Indian economy are strong, I think the prime minister, who hold the pivotal position in government, is living in denial," Jaitley said.

"Most agency world over, most economist world over, chambers, independent observers, domestic economists without exception are commenting very adversely against the UPA's management on nation economies," he added.

Asserting that India is no longer been showcased as the investment destination, Jaitley said: "The sentiments is low, the investment environment has been seriously affected. India is no longer been showcased as the investment destination. Infrastructure management is going slow."

"And at this state of affairs, where inflation are high, the international oil prices are high, the monsoons don't look like being particularly encouraging, I think the prime minister should have responded to the wake up call," he said.

"The situation has remained constant for almost two years now, regrettably there has been no response from the Government. When the Government said that the fundamentals are strong, I think, the government is trying to deceive the people. It is still not late for this government to realize what realty is and take some efforts to correct it," he added.

Earlier in the day, Dr. Singh said the downgrade of India's growth forecast by Moody's was a cause of concern but expressed hoped that India would better last year's 6.5 per cent economic growth.

"It is a cause of concern but one should not draw unwarranted conclusions," Dr. Singh told reporters on the sidelines of Vice-President's swearing-in ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

He further said that the fundamentals of Indian economy are strong.

"The fundamentals of Indian economy are strong. Investments and savings are among the highest in the world. I am hopeful, we will do still better than 6.5 per cent growth performance of last year," Dr. Singh said.

The research unit of ratings agency Moody's Investors Service becomes the latest to cut India's growth forecasts this week.

Moody's said the slowdown in India's economy "has been sharper and more broad-based than anticipated and is now deeply entrenched across all sectors of the economy," in a note dated August 8.

Despite the slowing growth, Moody's said both the government and the Reserve Bank of India had provided "little policy response."

Moody's added weaker-than-average rainfalls during the monsoon period would also weigh on India's growth. The research unit also cut its 2013 growth forecast to 6 percent from 6.2 percent. (ANI)