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For the second time in less than a fortnight, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh questioned the government’s growth figures and assertions of an economic recovery.
He said that a majority of the UPA’s initiatives are being “repackaged” and sold as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a better “salesman, event manager and communicator” than him.
Addressing a meeting of the Congress Chief Ministers on Tuesday, the former Prime Minister, an economist of considerable repute himself, said: “There is somewhat of a euphoria that our GDP growth since 2014-15 has started accelerating once again. But doubts have been expressed both within and outside the government about the validity of the new GDP numbers”.
Fragile recovery Singh had made similar remarks on May 27 while addressing a gathering of the Congress’s youth wing members. He talked at length about economic growth and asserted that the BJP has attempted a statistical modification to show economic recovery, but it is “very fragile”.
“The BJP government has had to manufacture, modify some statistical data to show that this past one year has not been that bad for them. Their own people are of the view that the recovery that they talk about is a very fragile one. The Chief Economic Advisor of the Ministry of Finance and the RBI Governor have both been of the view that recovery has been very fragile,” Singh had said.
He was also very critical of the government for the “hasty” abolition of the Planning Commission. “I am concerned that the Planning Commission that helped weaker States and poorer regions has been abolished hastily,” said Singh.
The BJP government has replaced the plan panel with NITI Aayog which is mandated to serve as a policy think-tank for the central and state governments and has Prime Minister as its Chairperson.
Singh slammed the BJP for its “obstructionist” role in blocking the GST bill during the UPA rule. “We made every effort to make GST a reality but we were up against an obstructionist BJP… Now, the BJP has become the greatest champion of GST,” he said.
But, he said, he was “not sure that the law we are currently considering is the best route forward”.
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