Congress, BJP ‘papers’ mere electoral exercise, says Mayawati, calls it ‘narrow politics’

Lucknow, Feb 9 (PTI) Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Friday termed the trading of accusations between BJP and Congress over their handling of economy nothing but a self-serving exercise and wondered whether public welfare is possible amid such “narrow politics.”

“The trading of allegations between the BJP and the Congress, and proving each other wrong through a ‘white paper’ and ‘black paper’ ahead of the Lok Sabha election is nothing but an exercise done for electoral gain,” Mayawati said in a statement in Hindi.

“How is the welfare of the public possible through such narrow politics? Especially at a time when crores of people are facing high inflation, poverty, unemployment, it is important that everyone shed their vested interests and come together to take on the extremely-worrisome national problems,” she said.

The BSP chief said there is no increase in the per capita income of the people of the country, but the “big capitalists” are getting richer exponentially.

She said issues like redundancy of SC, ST and OBC reservation, piling backlog, continued devaluation of rupee, and corruption in common life are preventing people from leading an equitable life.

A ‘White Paper’ versus ‘Black Paper’ battle erupted on Thursday as the Centre and the Congress unveiled documents and crossed swords over the handling of the Indian economy during the nearly 10 years of the BJP-led NDA rule and the previous 10-year tenure of the Congress-led UPA government.

As the rival multi-party alliances sought to put the spotlight on economic issues just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a jibe at the Congress for coming out with a “Black Paper” on the NDA government, calling it a “kaala teeka”(black dot) that will ward off the evil eye on the achievements of his government.

While the NDA government’s White Paper said the Indian economy was on “road to nowhere” in 2014 because of the multiple wrong turns taken during the UPA rule, the Congress’ Black Paper highlighted what it called the “failures” of the Modi government and alleged that the last 10 years have been a period of “injustice”.

The White Paper tabled in Parliament by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted the alleged “economic mismanagement” by the previous UPA government and achievements of the 10 years of NDA rule.