The BJP has been accusing the Congress of spearheading protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the proposed NRC/NPR, but the Opposition party is more interested in talking about the economy. A section in the Congress, supported by former president Rahul Gandhi, believes that CAA is a trap laid by the BJP to change the discourse from livelihood issues. It wants the party to organise more programmes against the Centre’s economic policies.

In the recently held meeting of all Opposition parties, Gandhi had urged other parties to join the Congress in attacking the economic policies of Narenedra Modi government. The party has also decided to hold a series of special press conferences on economic issues along with other programmes.

In one such press conference, the party’s spokesman and faculty of Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur Gourav Vallabh said the per capita debt on Indians has increased due to the Centre’s policies. “Total debt in March 2014 was ₹53.11 lakh crore, whereas in September 2019, the same has increased to ₹91.01 lakh crore, a 71 per cent increase in 5.5 years. In last 5.5 years, per capita debt is increased by ₹27,200. Increase in rate of per capita debt (10.3 per cent) is twice vis a vis rate of per capita GDP (5.3 per cent) in compound annual growth rate terms,” he said.

He added that for every rupee earned in 2014, the debt component was 43 per cent, whereas in 2019 for every rupee earned, the debt has increased to 48 per cent. The wealth of India’s richest one per cent is more than four-times of total for 70 per cent poorest,” he said and added that national debt is an important component for managing the finances of the government of any country.

He said as an impact of the increase in debt, the RBI will have to raise the yield on newly issued treasury bonds to attract new investors. “This reduces the amount of tax revenue available to spend on other governmental services because more tax revenue will have to be paid out as interest on the national debt. Over time, this shift in expenditure will cause people to experience a lower standard of living, as borrowing for economic enhancement projects becomes more difficult,” he said.

He said this will also increase inflation, reducing the purchasing-power of the people. “The current situation is a classic situation where growth is depleting very fast while inflation is rearing its ugly head once again and more importantly in order to address these type of crunch the government has to resort to more and more stimulus which will only increase the debt further,” he added.

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