Dropped idea of White Paper on economy as it could have hurt

national interest: PM New Delhi, Sept 2 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi todaysaid he had thought of bringing out a White Paper on the stateof economy after 10 years of UPA rule when NDA rode to powerin 2014 but refrained from doing fearing it would hurt thecountry’s interest. Just before presentation of the NDA government’s firstBudget in July 2014, Modi said, his political sense advisedhim to present a health of economy, including the precariousstate of public sector banks and problems with the Budgetnumbers. But national interest prevented him from doing so. Two years of his rule has ended large corruption as alsobrought in the "biggest tax reform" of Goods and Services Tax(GST), he told Network 18 channel in an interview. "Today I think, before presenting the first budget (in2014), I should have placed a White Paper in Parliament on theeconomic situation in the country. This thought had come tome. I had two paths. Politics told me that I should put outall the details. "But the nation’s interest told me that this informationwould increase the hopelessness, the markets would be badlyhit, it would be big blow to the economy and the world’s viewof India would get worse… it would have been very difficultto get the economy out of that…I chose to stay silent at therisk of political damage in the national interest," he said. The government did not put the details about the situationof the public sector banks and how the previous governmentused to move budget numbers, the Prime Minister said. "It hurt us… we were criticised, it was made to looklike it was my fault. But I took the political damage in thecountry’s interest and the result of that I am being able tofix things, despite shortcomings," he said. According to a Nerwork18 press release, Modi expressedconfidence that "unbiased people" would be surprised tocompare the current situation with what prevailed during 2014.(MORE) PTI CS ANZMR