New Delhi: The BJP on Friday described as "disappointing and uninspiring" Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's address to the nation, saying that instead of rolling back the hike in diesel price and removing the cap on cooking gas cylinders he has only sought to justify them.
"The Prime Minister's speech was uninspiring and disappointing. We are not happy about the speech at all.. The people were expecting some relief, that he will be taking back the hike in diesel price and the cap on LPG cylinders. But he has only made lame excuses," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
The BJP alleged Singh has only cited the economic crisis when the "real reason" behind the hike is corruption in UPA government.
"The PM could have acted tough on corruption and announced cancellation of the coal blocks allocations and auctions which would have given Rs 1.86 Lakh crore to the government coffers," Javadekar said.
Terming this as a "failure" of the "economist PM", BJP said while the Prime Minister should be announcing creation of more jobs, he is banking of foreign retail giants like Walmart to do so in India.
"Walmart is not coming to India for charity.. The government is bringing in FDI in multi-brand retail under foreign pressure," Javadekar said.
Attacking Singh for his comments that money does not grow on trees, BJP said "this is akin to rubbing salt on the wounds of the people".
The BJP said the hike in diesel price will increase the consumer price index from the present 10 per cent to 12 per cent and have a cascading effect on the economy. "It will mean an additional burden of Rs 40,000 crore," Javadekar said.
Farmers, fishermen, public transport will suffer due to this, he charged. The party maintained that the PM's contention of families using only six cylinders per year is not true and it is due to choking of the supply chain which forces them to make do with just six.
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