New Delhi: Fake encounters and terrorism got mixed up with GDP growth Monday as the Congress and BJP traded barbs over how the economy had fared under NDA and UPA. Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday charged Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi with staging a "fake encounter with facts" regarding his claims of economic growth during BJP-led NDA being 8.4 per cent and said nothing can be further from truth. "The average for the six year period (under Atal Bihari Vajpayee government from 1998-99 to 2003-04) was 6.0 per cent and the average for the last five years (1999-2000 to 2003-04) was 5.9 per cent," he said in a statement here.

In contrast, the average growth rate during Congress-led UPA's first term was 8.4 per cent and 7.3 per cent during the first four years of UPA-II, he said. "The two worst years since the turn of the century were 2000-01 (4.3 per cent) and 2002-03 (4 per cent)," he said giving out yearly GDP growth rate during the six years of NDA rule under Vajpayee.

Chidambaram's statement was in response to Modi's reported claim of economic growth rate during Vajpayee government being 8.4 per cent. "Nothing can be further from the truth... I wonder why Shri Narendra Modi should stage a fake encounter with facts. Ultimately, facts will prevail," the Finance Minister said. "If there was a golden period of growth, it was the five year period under UPA-1," he added.

The BJP hit back with former finance minister Yashwant Sinha faulting Chidambaram for invoking average growth rates. "Chidambaram is doing terrorism with facts. He is only comparing on averages. This is only jugglery of figures," Sinha responded. "They are comparing nine years average with five years average of NDA. Can Chidambaram explain why the growth rate today is 4.8 per cent?" the BJP leader retorted, adding that when the BJP-led coalition left office, it was 8.6 per cent.