Centre under Opposition fire over latest GDP data

The post-demonetisation decline in GDP growth has infused new life to the Opposition’s attacks on the Narendra Modi government, with several parties saying the slowdown is a sign of the Centre’s ineptness.

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi said the government was responsible for the decline in GDP growth. He said it was manufacturing other issues to deflect the country’s attention from its failures. “Falling GDP. Rising unemployment. Every other issue is manufactured to distract us from this fundamental failure,” he tweeted.

The Congress reminded the Centre about former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement in Rajya Sabha that demonetisation could result in a two per cent fall in the GDP.

CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said all sectors of the economy had been hit by the slowdown. “This is a broad-based economic slowdown, cutting across sectors. Indicative of overall government ineptness. Are we headed for a bigger disaster?” he tweeted.

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said demonetisation made the slowdown worse. “I had said demonetisation will affect growth by 1-1.5 per cent. Spot on. Gross value added (GVA) down by 1.3 per cent. Economy began slowing down in July 2016. Demonetisation made it worse. Between Q4 of 2015-16 and Q4 of 2016-17, growth declined by 3.1 per cent,” Chidambaram said.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy was also critical about the way economy is being handled. He said he had sent a six-page letter to Prime Minister narendra Modi about five storm signals from the economy and the deceleration in GDP. “The economy can, however, be course-corrected,” he said, and added that the Centre should defer the GST to July 2019 in view of West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra’s warnings. “Otherwise Waterloo,” Swamy said, suggesting that the BJP may suffer a defeat in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress’ deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma asked the Centre to come out with a white paper on the state of the Indian economy and the GDP numbers under the old and new methodology for the last 10 years. “The latest numbers on the economy expose the lies of the BJP government. First unemployment rises, now GDP growth falls,” he said. “There is a visible slowdown as all the key parameters of the economy have moved to the negative,” he added.

He said the high growth is only the false perception created by the new series and the new methodology. “The truth will be out that the economy is facing a serious slowdown. This government has much to answer. We would like to advise them to stop making false claims to befool the people of the country any longer and should instead focus on the economy. It is nor surging but a shrinking economy,” he said.

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