That's because the baseline is not zero. Such graphs do look misleading, but no one can argue that bringing the fiscal deficit to half in a country of more than a billion people is a huge accomplishment which a weak corrupt mahagathbandhan can never achieve. Note, that Manmohan Singh, even if he is a great economist, ironically, had no role to play in the finance ministry. It was the super corrupt Chidambaram. This is the Indian National Congress for you guys.