Deputy Chief Minister and senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia on Wednesday expressed his concern over the “poor financial condition” of the country under the BJP government.
Mr. Sisodia, who is also the Finance Minister of Delhi, said that two former finance ministers of India, Yashwant Sinha and P Chidambaram, both of whom have presented at least 10 union budgets between them, have sounded off a serious alarm on the present situation of the Indian economy.
‘Not party-specific’
“Mr. Sinha has said and reiterated what many leading economists have been saying for months — India’s economy is already in a mess and is headed for disaster,” Mr. Sisodia said.
He said that the worrying condition of the Indian economy, which is a matter of national concern and not a party-specific issue, has cropped up because the individuals running the central government have little understanding of economic policies.
The AAP said that the BJP came to power in 2014 with the promise of complete economic transformation of the country. They said that it seems that the BJP has in fact achieved its goal, only by transforming the economy’s growth into a decline.
From being the world’s fastest growing economy just a year ago, India has become a “free-fall economy”, with slow growth, low investment and no jobs, Mr. Sisodia said. He added that India has also witnessed its lowest GDP growth rate since 2014.
“Our growth rate has fallen consistently over the last six quarters from 9.1% in January to March 2016, to 5.7% last quarter — the lowest since 2014. This is a catastrophic fall especially since 1% lower annual GDP growth is equal to a loss of ₹1.5 lakh crore worth of national income and loss of millions of jobs,” Mr. Sisodia said.
The party said that the country has also been witnessing the lowest private investments in 25 years and the lowest job creation in eight years.
“Decisions like demonetisation and the botched up GST design and rollout was only the result of unsound political rhetoric rather than sound economic understanding or common sense. We demand that the BJP government take corrective measures to save the country from an economic disaster. It must consult all stakeholders, including elected State governments on how to salvage the situation,” he said.
