NDA government excellent, always on action mode: Rajnath

Kolkata: Terming the one-year progress report of the NDA government as "excellent", union Home minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said the country has moved out of the crisis of policy paralysis and India's rating has turned positive globally.

"Anybody reviewing the one-year performance of the NDA government will naturally arrive at the conclusion that under the leadership of (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi this government's performance has been very excellent" the home minister said.

"If anybody does not want to use the word excellent, then he will admit the reality that for the past one year this government has always been in action mode," Singh said.

He was addressing a media conference at the Press Club here on the first anniversary of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

"It is a fact that the after the BJP-led NDA government came to power at the Centre, the country's credibility has gone up not only in India, but also abroad," he said.

Attacking the Congress-headed United Progressive Alliance regime, which ruled the country from 2004 to 2014, the minister said it had become a victim of "policy paralysis", which derailed the economy and created an all-round "despair".

"But today, we can say with confidence that there has been a vast change in our economy from the micro to the macro-level. Economy has become very strong."

He said while the fiscal deficit and the current account deficit had spiralled beyond control during the UPA regime, the Gross Domestic Product had remained around 5 percent.

He said the GDP has now increased to seven percent and exuded confidence that the country would see a double-digit GDP growth within three-four years.

The minister said among the G-20 countries, India's economy is growing fast, while the fiscal deficit and the current account deficit were now controlled and stood at approximately four percent and 3.8 percent respectively.

Referring to international rating agency Moody's, he said it has changed India's rating from negative to positive.

He said during the UPA rule, there was an adverse impact on defence proposals and projects as proposals were not cleared. But during the past one year, 40 defence proposals have been cleared with a view to further strengthening the country's security over.

The senior minister said the prices have come down, and ridiculed critics for arguing that the relief was the result of the reduction in crude oil rates in the international market.

"I would like to ask them, then why is it that it is only in India that prices are coming down? Why is it not happening in other countries?"