Commenting on the GDP numbers, the CPI(M) said the Centre should release more funds for the poor.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the numbers are a result of the pre-lockdown destruction of the economy by Narendra Modi government. "Let aside data manipulation, the economic devastation will be much worse this quarter. Modi must declare the monies he is collecting in his private trust fund and release it to provide relief and livelihoods,” Yechury said on Friday.

Yechury had earlier said in an article written in his party's mouthpiece People's Democracy that Modi’s ₹20 lakh crore financial package cannot revitalise the economy. "Its purpose is to re-package the earlier schemes and use the opportunity of the pandemic and lockdown to push through the faster loot of national assets," he said.

Yechury said the Centre, during the period of lockdown, unilaterally changed the labour laws and negated the rights of elected State governments. "All this has happened, while imposing greater misery and exploitation of the vast majority of our people. This is the trajectory that is against the interests of India’s economic self-reliance, against the welfare, livelihood and prosperity of our people," he argued.

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