New Delhi [India], February 5 : Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Malviya on Wednesday slammed Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi over his 'Make in India' criticism and blamed Congress for 'doing nothing' to prepare India's economy for future even after a decade in power during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government from 2004-2014.
Malviya said said that the Congress-led UPA continued the "legacy of policy paralysis, rampant cronyism, and complete neglect of industrial growth."
"It is good that Rahul Gandhi has finally acknowledged a fact the entire nation already knew--that even after a decade in power, the UPA utterly failed to create jobs or strengthen India's manufacturing base. However, what he conveniently ignores is that his party did nothing to prepare India's economy for the future. After stifling India's manufacturing potential for decades through the License Quota Raj, the Congress-led UPA continued its legacy of policy paralysis, rampant cronyism, and complete neglect of industrial growth" Malviya wrote on X.
Malviya, the In-charge of BJP's National Information & Technology Department, blamed Congress for "delaying policy decisions" when Intel sought to establish a multi-billion-dollar chip plant in India. He added that move "forced Intel to take its investment to China and Vietnam instead."
"A perfect example of Congress's disastrous approach to manufacturing is what happened in 2006 when Intel sought to establish a multi-billion-dollar chip plant in India. The UPA government kept delaying the necessary policy decisions, forcing Intel to take its investment to China and Vietnam instead. That single failure set India back by decades in semiconductor manufacturing. Now, under Prime Minister Modi's leadership, India is aggressively building its chip manufacturing ecosystem, ensuring such costly mistakes are never repeated," he wrote on X.
Malviya then empyhasised on BJP's commitment toward technology centred growth of the country
"NDA government is actively investing in capacity building for critical technologies. In addition to eliminating 1,550 outdated laws and 40,000 unnecessary compliances, the government has introduced bold reforms such as the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, which is boosting 14 key sectors and cutting-edge technologies," he said.
Malviya listed BJP achievement as of August 2024 and said that over 9.5 lakh direct jobs has been created, exports have surpassed Rs 4 lakh crore, Incremental production/sales have exceeded Rs 12.50 lakh crore and Rs 1.46 lakh crore in investments have been realized.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday alleged that the Modi government's 'Make In India' initiative has failed to revive the production and share of manufacturing in GDP has come down from 15.3 per cent of GDP in 2014 to 12.6 per cent, which is lowest in the past 60 years.
Taking part in the motion of thanks on the President's Address, Gandhi pitched for caste census and said applying AI to it would lead to a lot of possibilities.
Gandhi, who spoke in detail on the need to boost manufacturing, spoke about competition from China and said India has an opportunity with the revolution in energy and mobility.
He said China has been working on batteries, robots, motors, and optics for the last ten years, and it has at least a ten-year lead on India in this space.