Rediff

New Delhi, Feb 16: Leader of the Opposition L K Advani had some rare words of praise for Dr Manmohan Singh on Friday, not for his role as the prime pinister but for his work as the finance minister in the 1990s.

Addressing the annual meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the BJP leader slammed the Manmohan Singh government as 'non-functional' and 'internally paralysed' and claimed that 'people are already looking beyond' it.

But he hailed former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and his then Finance Minister Singh for 'showing the courage to reverse' the Congress' economic policies and liberalise the economy.

"I am not going to distinguish as to who should get more credit. But they should get credit and that is why we accepted it," Advani said noting the National Democratic Alliance government complemented, reaffirmed and continued the reforms when it assumed power.

"When Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the prime minister, and ran a stable and successful government for six years, we tried to accelerate and broaden the agenda of economic reforms, with results that all of you have seen," he said.

The economic policy of the country has 'moved in the same direction' in the last two decades, he said. Advani's comments came at the Ficci meeting, where Singh  launched a veiled attack on the previous NDA government on the economic front earlier in the day.

"In the Ninth Plan period, between 1997-98 to 2002, the growth rate declined to 5.5 per cent. The governments of the day were unable to inspire.They were preoccupied with divisive agendas and their economic agenda was not focused. There was no attempt to make our growth more broad-based and inclusive," he said.

'Don't misuse the stock market': Commenting on the volatility in the stock markets in recent months, the senior BJP leader said it is 'understandable' if the stock market downturn was induced by developments in the global financial crisis.

"However, there can be no place for manipulation, malpractices and misuse of the system by any of the players of the capital market. Offender must be punished," he said.

After weeks of downturn, triggered by fears of a recession in the US, the market appears to have stabilised. The benchmark Sensex gained over 340 points on Friday, on reports that India's headline inflation rate has cooled.