Attacking the government on the latest GDP numbers, the Congress said it has no answer to the fall in GDP during the last quarter even as the prime minister maintained an “eloquent silence” on the issue.
“Seeing the kind of Indian economy figures, it is fair to say that the BJP has become India’s biggest NPA (non- performing asset) or indeed a non-performing non-asset. The ‘Make in India’ lion which was said to be roaring, now appears to be snoozing,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.
He said the country is witnessing jobless growth and farmers are in bad shape and are protesting in Maharashtra, as there is rural distress in large parts of the country.
Singhvi said yesterday Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had asked the prime minister about his vision about ‘Make in India’, “but we continue to have eloquent silence of the prime minister”.
The Congress leader said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is giving no answers to the fall in GDP numbers and the best way to describe the government’s press conference on GDP is to use the adjectives of “utter confusion, perplexity, hypocrisy, bewilderment and even bemusement”.
He said the best answer one got on the dwindling GDP numbers was that demonetisation could not be identified as the sole reason for the low GDP growth. He also said that the only thing not said by Jaitley was to blame the legacy of the Congress-led UPA.
“There is no specific answer to the pointed question on how the GDP figures have fallen to 6.1 per cent,” he said, adding that the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ appears to have become “Cease of Doing Business” in the current dispensation.
“In the past three years, the BJP government does not have the faintest idea of how to stop the slide of the economy. The recent GDP numbers prove that this very government is responsible for this massive downslide,” he said.
Singhvi said while Jaitley has given vague answers as explanation for the slide in numbers, unemployment is rising and corporate sector has taken a hit while the Modi government is relying on statistics to create an illusion of economy growth.
“The numbers speak the truth and they all establish that there is a massive downslide…The Congress has said that there is jobless growth, but the CSO tells us that there are neither jobs nor growth,” he said.
Singhvi also said that only 24 months are left with this government to take some tangible and real steps of governance.
“We demand the BJP that it listens and implements what it promised – both jobs and welfare of farmers,” he said.
PTI