Similarly, his assertion that everything was being done to unearth the factors behind so-called Coalgate skirted the truth considering that a minister had to resign following his overseeing of the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) inquiry report on the coal block allocations for mining.
Moreover, the prime minister's references to global factors for the economic downturn till he finally conceded that there were also domestic reasons amounted to being economical with the truth. Even then, his identification of these reasons as infrastructure bottlenecks and the slowness of environmental clearances sidestepped the allegation that the existence of dual centres of authority was responsible for the policy logjam.
Instead, he claimed that the system of dualism worked "exceedingly well". The same belief that his tenure was a reasonably successful one was evident in his claim that history will be "kinder" to him than his contemporaries.
If anything, assertions of this nature underline the typical knee-jerk reactions of a ruling party that all is well and that the government cannot be blamed too much for any slippages that may have occurred, ranging from corruption to inflation.
So, the report card that he read out predictably highlighted the governments' achievements, including a reduction in poverty and the rate of unemployment. But, the prime minister was unwilling to rate the government's performance on a scale of 10 although it was pointed out to him that he had earlier given his administration a score of seven.
