Rahul Bajaj lashes out at UPA for slow growth

New Delhi (PTI): Bajaj Auto Chairman Rahul Bajaj has hit out at the government, blaming it for the slowdown in the economy, while predicting that it will be a very tough year for the domestic motorcycle segment this fiscal. In his letter to shareholders in the company's annual report for 2012-13, Bajaj said despite growing at over 9 per cent for three successive years under the first Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, India failed to "create the necessary infrastructure and investments to maintain healthy growth in difficult times". "Instead of focusing on highways, power, rail, ports and IT networks that are critical for sustained growth, we steadily raised the nation's fiscal deficit to finance consumption-based subsidies and hand-outs," he said. This in turn caused inflationary pressures, which led to the RBI imposing high interest rates and a tight monetary regime.