The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims that the Indian economy was on a firm footing.
Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia compared the PM to a surgeon who claims that the operation has been successful even when the patient is on the verge of death.
Mr. Sisodia said that PM Modi had presented “incorrect facts” about the country’s GDP slowdown.
The Prime Minister had said that his government will continue reforms and not hesitate to take decisions to reverse the GDP slowdown witnessed in the last two quarters.
The PM tried to present a picture of the economy before the nation which was more imaginary than factual, he told the media.
‘Misled the country’
“PM Modi misled the county in his speech on the economy quoting facts and figures without any context and not explaining the reasons for the sliding GDP and employment figures. He made no mention of what his government has achieved over the last three years in the fields of education and healthcare,” Mr. Sisodia said.
Mr. Sisodia, who is also the finance minister of Delhi, said contrary to the Prime Minister’s claim, the GDP fell from 9.1% to 5.7% in the last six quarters.
“He has either lied about the economic crisis or has presented facts wrongly,” he said.
Mr. Modi had on Wednesday slammed his critics, saying they were seeing a slowdown in the last two quarters but ignoring the fact that the BJP government had brought down inflation from 10% under the UPA dispensation to 2.5%, shrunk Current Account Deficit to near 1% from 4%, and brought down fiscal deficit to 3.5% from 4.5%.
Mr Sisodia said a decline of even 1% in the GDP renders 10 lakh people jobless.
Mr. Sisodia said Mr. Modi did not speak about job creation. The job market is down and there are no fresh investments coming in, he claimed.
