From Rahul to Chidambaram- Congress leaders slam govt on latest GDP figures

 The Congress today said the latest GDP numbers have exposed the "lies" of the BJP-led NDA government which tries to deflect public attention from its failures and needs to answer as to why the Indian economy is facing a "serious slowdown".

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi while criticising the government for the GDP decline accused it of manufacturing other issues to deflect the country's attention from failures. "Falling GDP. Rising unemployment. Every other issue is manufactured to distract us from this fundamental failure," Gandhi tweeted. Former finance minister P Chidambaram, who had criticised the note ban and said it would lead to a fall in GDP, said he has been proved right as he warned that the economy will further slide if corrective steps are not taken. "I had said demonetisation will affect growth by 1-1.5 per cent. Spot on. GVA down by 1.3 per cent," he said on Twitter.
"The economy began slowing down in July 2016. Demonetisation made it worse," Chidambaram said.

The former finance minister also said that between Q4 of 2015-16 and Q4 of 2016-17, growth declined by 3.1 per cent. He said as predicted, the economy has taken a big hit after government adopted the new system for measuring Gross Value Addition (GVA) where it declined from 7.9 per cent in 2015-16 to 6.6 per cent in 2016-17. Congress senior spokesperson Anand Sharma dared the government to come out with a white paper on the state of the Indian economy and the GDP numbers under the old and new methodology for the last 10 years which he claimed will "expose" the government's "false claims".

"The latest numbers on the economy expose the lies of the BJP government. First unemployment rises, now GDP growth falls," he said. Sharma said the fall in GDP numbers have confirmed the worst fears that despite tall claims made by this government the Indian economy is going down and GDP growth is flat. The Congress leader said the prime minister and the finance minister have created a "false perception" that the country's economy is growing whereas the growth is flat. "It is only the false perception created by the new series and the new methodology. The truth will be out that the economy is facing a serious slowdown. This government has much to answer.

"We would like to advise them to stop making false claims to befool the people of the country any longer and should instead focus on the economy. It is not surging but a shrinking economy," he said. Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said it was a matter of serious concern that the country's GDP was declining after each quarter. He also thanked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for not putting the blame for slowing GDP on the previous Congress government, which he claimed was doing much better with the economy.

Kumar said every sector of the economy was going down, yet the "light and sound department" of BJP was out to divert public attention through its event management and claims that everything was going good in the country under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sharma said there is a visible slowdown as all the key parameters of the economy have moved to the negative. He also said the national investment rate has come down by 7 points and the manufacturing index is in the negative.

The credit offtake is the lowest in the last 63 years, he said, adding that there is underutilisation of installed capacity in the manufacturing sector. Seeking GDP numbers in the old and new series, he said the truth will be out that the Indian economy registered its highest growth during the UPA regime and since this government assumed office the growth has nosedived. He claimed that the earlier figures will show that for six years during UPA the economy was growing in double digits.

Sharma said jobs are not being created but are being lost instead and this government has much to answer and that is why the Congress party demands a white paper and the 10 years of GDP numbers under the old and the new methodology which the NDA government adopted from 2014 onwards.