BJP blames UPA's mismanagement of India's economy for S andP rating

New Delhi, Apr 25 (ANI): With the global agency Standard and Poor's (S andP) lowering India's rating outlook to negative, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday said the rating is due to the series of gross mismanagement of India's economy by the UPA.

"India's economic identity has suffered a serious dent. It is not unexpected. India's growth rate has come down, industrial production has decreased, the import of capital goods has also gone down. Today's rating has come in the backdrop of all these negative developments," said senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Prasad said all this was happening under an economist Prime Minister.

"When Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister of India then he did not have the image of a national leader. It is a matter of debate whether it is (national leader image) still there or not. But we were told that Dr. Singh is an economist of great caliber and distinction, and under his leadership India would be poised for big growth," he said.

Prasad further asked the ruling Congress Party to stop blaming the opposition for its ills, shortcomings and deficiency.

" This government is not the on the same page, as far as economic decisions are concerned. The decisions are taken by 7, RCR or 10, Janpath, we don't know. I regret to say the Prime Minister and even the Finance Minister are not on the same page," he added.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, however, earlier in the day said there was no need to panic over rating agency Standard and Poor's downgrade of the country's economic outlook from stable to negative.

He further said the UPA Government would pass legislation to aid the economic growth.

"There may be some delays in getting some legislations done. But I have mentioned to you earlier that we are trying to get this legislations enacted by broad consensus and I do hope that some of these legislations may be enacted during this later part of this session and surely in the Monsoon Session," he added.

Global agency Standard and Poor's (S andP) today lowered India's rating outlook to negative and warned of a downgrade in two years if there is no improvement in the fiscal situation and the political climate continues to worsen. (ANI)