Ashwani Mahajan, SJM national co-convenor, told DNA as he accused the current dispensation in Niti Aayog of pursuing the same economic policies as the UPA government that led to lack of jobs in India.
After RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's veiled criticism of Niti Aayog and his take on economic policies during his Vijayadashmi speech, it Swadeshi Jagaran Manch's turn to fire yet another salvo on the plan panel on Tuesday.
"Economic planners sitting in the Aayog have de-humanised growth and economy," Ashwani Mahajan, SJM national co-convenor, told DNA as he accused the current dispensation in Niti Aayog of pursuing the same economic policies as the UPA government that led to lack of jobs in India.
"Niti Aayog is populated by the wrong kind of economists and people. Those who sit there to deliberate and suggest policies to government must know the feelings of farmers, workers, small traders, landless labour. Policy-making is not a technical affair; it has to be a humane process. Mere growth in GDP is not development," Mahajan said.
"The approach of the Niti Aayog has been GDP-centric so far. SJM has been saying from the beginning that this model of development adopted since the advent of the new economic policy is faulty. The proponents of the philosophy that increasing the GDP will be panacea of all the problems have been proved thoroughly wrong. The presumption that benefits will percolate down to the last man have been proved wrong as between 1980 and 2014, most of the benefits have been cornered by top 10 per cent of the population, while 29 per cent of the resources are concentrated in the hands of only 1 per cent of the people of India," Mahajan said.
Mahajan felt that the PMO had done a better job than the Aayog. "Better programmes have been devised by the PMO such as Mudra Yojna, Jan Dhan Yojna, Ujjwala etc. We welcome that as they are devised to improve the lot of the people. But the philosophy of GDP-based growth needs to be discarded," he said and insisted that the mindset of the government, policy makers and the Finance Ministry needs to change."
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