Congress brought era of darkness: Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister says the previous UPA govt. mismanaged the economy after the 2008 financial crisis.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman invoked the mismanagement of the economy by the UPA following the global financial crisis of 2008 to draw a contrast with the government’s deft management of the ‘once in a century’ situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic, in her response to the debate on the Union Budget for 2022-23 in the Lok Sabha.

Responding to Opposition jibes about the next 25 years of Amrit Kaal leading up to India’s 100 years of Independence, as mentioned in the Budget, Ms. Sitharaman said that the ‘Andh Kaal’ (era of darkness) referred to by a member actually occurred due to the Congress.

“In 1991, the country had just two weeks of foreign exchange reserves left… Double digit inflation during the 10 years of the UPA-1, and particularly UPA-2, was Andh Kaal indeed. Third, the coal scam, the everyday headlines of corruption, 2G scam, middlemen all over, that was Andh Kaal,” the minister said.