The Congress Thursday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "making uncharitable references" to the United Progressive Alliance government during the launch of the 'Make in India' initiative here and said the plan was a "re-statement" of the national manufacturing policy of the previous government.In a statement, Congress deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma said the stated objective to attract investment and technology and promotion of exports "cannot be part of a partisan narrative"."Unfortunately, the prime minister has chosen to do so by making uncharitable references to the tenure of the previous government. He has not shown the grace of acknowledging India's recent achievements and national policy initiatives with the similar objective in mind," Sharma said.
He said an impression was being created that 'Make in India' was Modi's grand vision. The official machinery had been mobilized to showcase the event and Indian missions were under instructions concerning launch of the initiative and its telecast. "It is imperative that people of India are not misled into believing that this is the first time India is embarking on this journey. Such a claim militates against the facts in public domain and amounts to hiding governance reforms of last few years," Sharma, who was Commerce Minister in the UPA government, said.
He said a decision to establish "Invest India" - a joint venture between the Government of India and the industry - was taken by the union cabinet in January 2010. Sharma also said that the union cabinet in 2011 approved the national manufacturing policy to raise the share of manufacturing in GDP from 16 to 25 percent. "Today's staged event is a restatement of the objectives and provisions of the national manufacturing policy," he said. In his speech, Modi had taken a dig at the UPA government, stating that flight of capital had started taking place during its rule. Without naming the Congress, he said party leaders had now stopped taking credit for the financial inclusion scheme as they realise they could not implement it properly.