# BJP mocks Congress as India marks 10 years of UPI success 2026-08-25T13:13:13+00:00 | Politics | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets (3 source reports) BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra on Tuesday attacked the Congress over past remarks against the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), as the digital payment platform completed 10 years of its rollout in 2016. Patra said former finance minister P Chidambaram had called UPI a "big blunder" and claimed poor people could not use it. "A golgappa seller is smarter than Rahul Gandhi," Patra said, taking a swipe at Congress. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu hailed UPI as a transformative initiative. Congress MP Pawan Khera hit back, saying former prime minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation for India's digital payments infrastructure. Patra said UPI's transaction volume surged to 24,162 crore transactions in 2025-26 from 1.78 crore in 2016-17, a 13,000-fold jump. Value rose from Rs 0.07 lakh crore to Rs 314 lakh crore. UPI is available in 11 countries with 703 banks. ## Indian Opinion Analysis BJP's framing leads with a personal attack on Congress leaders over past UPI skepticism, while The Hindu's first report sticks to a neutral celebratory tone from a chief minister. The second The Hindu piece offers a policy-focused explainer on UPI's challenges, such as the zero-cost model and global competition, which the BJP coverage ignores entirely. Neither source addresses Congress's counter-claim that Manmohan Singh laid UPI's foundation. The contrast reveals that political posturing obscures substantive policy questions about the platform's future sustainability. NPCI's next steps on transaction limits and merchant integration will test UPI's evolution beyond volume growth. ## Coverage Coverage: 3 sources, 1 pro-government, 1 government-critical, 1 neutral - timesofindia.indiatimes.com (government critical) Leads with a partisan attack on Congress, suppressing policy analysis and the opposition's counter-claim - thehindu.com (pro government) Straight celebratory report on a chief minister's praise, with no political criticism - thehindu.com (2) (neutral report) Policy explainer on UPI's growth, challenges and global context, with no political angle This brief was synthesised by AI from the 3 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Updated: this story now draws on 3 sources. Last updated 2026-08-27T07:36:26+00:00. Tags: BJP, Congress, P Chidambaram, Rahul Gandhi, Sambit Patra, UPI Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/bjp-slams-congress-on-upis-10th-anniversary/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/bjp-slams-congress-on-upis-10th-anniversary/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/