Panaji, Jan 31 (IANS) A quartet of economists had failed India, where price rise and a slowing economy had severely affected common citizens, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader M. Venkaiah Naidu said Tuesday.

"Prices are rising. The great economists (Prime Minister) Manmohan Singh, (Finance Minister) Pranab Mukherjee, (Home Minister) P. Chidambaram and (Planning Commission deputy chairperson) Montek Singh (Ahluwalia)… these four great economists who have ruled and ruled the country now have no explanation," Naidu said at a press conference here.

The former BJP president also said that India's image internationally had been tarnished by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's inability to act against corruption.

"The nine percent growth rate is going down and these great economists have no clue how to increase growth," Naidu said.

The BJP leader, who was in Goa to address a public meeting ahead of the assembly polls Monday, said the UPA government had shamed India internationally thanks to a string of scams and ineffectiveness to act against corruption.

"The scams which the UPA presided over has made India the laughing stock of the world. This has been the greatest damage caused to the country," Naidu said.