London, July 15 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari Friday said the repeated terror attacks in Mumbai targetted India's booming economy and were aimed at shaking investor confidence. He pointed the finger at Pakistan for Wednesday's triple blasts in the metropolis that killed 17 people and left 131 injured.


Gadkari, pointing to India's neighbour but without naming it, said the Mumbai blasts were a "deliberate, well-calibrated and strategically planned agenda of those who are seen the world over as a failed state and have been adopting terror as a state policy”.

Talking to Indian-origin business-people in London, he said the Indian economy was resilient and could deal with the impact of terror strikes.

“The perpetrators of terrorist attacks in India, especially repeated attacks in Mumbai which is the commercial capital of the country, have sinister designs to vitiate the favourable investment climate and disrupt the booming Indian economy,” he said.

“The Indian economy is stable and any number of attempts by terror outfits will never be able to derail the favourable investment climate,” said Gadkari, who is on a six-day visit to London.

“The strength of Indian democracy, the resilience of its economy, peace loving nature of its hard-working people and the vigilance of its vibrant media has withstood such onslaughts. We have frustrated their evil designs in the past, are doing the same now and will continue to do so in future,” the BJP chief said.

Answering questions from the Indian-origin business-people, Gadkari said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was not inclusive in its growth policy as inflation was at an all-time high and the investment atmosphere was deteriorating.

Asked about the challenges to India's growth, Gadkari said: “The biggest challenge for us is to ensure these fruits of growth reach the last person on the ladder. The rural infrastructure needs a big push. We will have to develop adequate infrastructure to cope with growing needs”.