BJP blames 'government mismanagement' for economic rating cut

New Delhi, April 25 (IANS) With ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) lowering its outlook on India to negative from stable, the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday blamed "government mismanagement" for the poor economic situation in the country.

"Economic identity of India has suffered a serious dent, it is not unexpected," BJP general secretary and national spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said here.

The S&P Wednesday cut India's outlook to negative from stable, and warned of a ratings downgrade citing deteriorating economic indicators and slow progress on fiscal reforms in the backdrop of a "weakened political setting".

Its credit analyst Takahira Ogawa said there was one-in-three likelihood of India's sovereign ratings downgrade.

The ratings agency kept India's long-term rating unchanged at BBB-, which is the lowest investment grade rating.

"All this is happening under an economist prime minister... the truth behind the growth story has been revealed," he said, adding that the problem was arising because there was no consensus inside the government on economic reforms.

"They should stop blaming the opposition for their own ills... government is not on the same page on economic reforms, even prime minister and finance minister are not on the same page on economic reforms," Prasad said.

He also said that coalition politics cannot be blamed for the situation.

"Narsimha Rao government, in which both Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee were ministers, was not in majority. Yet important economic decisions were taken. Similarly, the NDA government had several allies, but we took important economic decision," he said.