Bangalore: Union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh today (March 1, 2004) attacked the Congress for "not feeling good" and claimed that National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was on its way to return to power at the Centre making the principal Opposition party's position "even worse".

Addressing intellectuals at a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-organised programme on "India on the Move", Singh said the ailment for the Congress "not feeling good" was different - medicine was politics. A dose of medicine has been served to it in the form of defeat in the recent Assembly elections in Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Another dose of medicine would be served in the coming general elections and the Congress would feel "even worse", he said.

"A political party which has made itself synonymous with the nation...one family synonymous with the nation...cannot feel good. You cannot reduce a great country to such a level," Singh said.

Asserting that all sections of the society were "feeling good", he said it was the mental subjugation that one needed to overcome to feel good. It was because of decades of mental subjugation that one was not able to grasp the level of change, Singh argued.

Listing the progress made by India on economic, internal and international fronts, he said there has been "emotional and mental independence" under the NDA regime.