New Delhi: In the continuing war of words with Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, Union Commerce and Industry Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley has said the backwardness of Madhya Pradesh has not changed over the years and the Congress party, which ruled the state for nearly half a century, should take the blame for it.

In a hard-hitting reply to Chief Minister Digvijay Singh's letter, he said the four recent independent reports on development of states showed that the backwardness of Madhya Pradesh has not changed over time.

"This reflects poorly on the system in Madhya Pradesh, which has been ruled by the Congress party since 1947 till date (barring some five years). Thus, during the last half century, the Congress party has been in power in Madhya Pradesh for perpetuating backwardness, for which you and your party may be responsible," he said in a letter dated May 23.

To substantiate his view, he quoted extensively from the reports prepared by Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and Indicus Analytics for Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), the National Human Development Report-2001 (NHDR) of Planning Commission, the 'India Today' report on performance of states and UNDP's Human Development Index.

Taking exception to earlier comments of Jaitley on the poor performance of Madhya Pradesh government, the Chief Minister had on May 7 shot off a letter to him debunking the statistics contained therein and variables chosen.

Claiming that the CII report was not a comment on the state's performance, Singh had said, "In fact, when the draft of this report was shared with me earlier by the CII, I had written to them that there is not much value in such a snapshot picture because it misses the reality of initial conditions of states."

PTI