"Economic environment taken beating during UPA rule"

"The economic environment in the country has taken a beating during the UPA regime. From 1991 to 2004 three successive governments of different shades and opinion liberalized the economy. Slowly but surely the reforms kept coming. 2004 became a defining moment for the Indian economy," Jaitley wrote on his website.

"The UPA government abandoned the path of reforms. Growth rate in the initial years was primarily on account of the global environment and the impetus of the past policies. Thereafter the growth rates depleted. The revenue generation became modest. Expenditure and economic activity started shrinking.  Employment generation  has been extremely slow. The farm sector has not done well either. It is under a serious pressure. The manufacturing sector has not grown and during certain quarters it has even shrunk," he said.

He said he has many things to learn from UPA government's mistakes.

"It is easy to pick up some odd statistics and base the entire argument on it. However, the UPA did not honestly analyze as to why things went wrong. It could therefore offer no corrective. From the UPA’s mistakes I have several lessons to learn," the BJP leader said.