NDA has no reason to celebrate: Sharmistha

‘Demonetisation biggest blunder committed by Modi govt.’

June 15, 2017 11:44 pm | Updated 11:44 pm IST - VISAKHAPATNAM

Congress spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee addressing the media in Visakhapatnam on Thursday.

Congress spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee addressing the media in Visakhapatnam on Thursday.

The BJP-led NDA is celebrating completion of three years of its five-year term. But in reality, there is nothing to celebrate, as the GDP growth has slowed down by 2% and the growth projected is skewed, AICC spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee has said.

Explaining through a PowerPoint presentation here on Thursday, she said: “The NDA is showing a growth rate averaging between 7% and 7.2%. But in reality, the growth rate is only 5%, as they have taken the base year as 2011-12 instead of 2004-2005. They are just juggling the figures and misguiding people,” she said.

The Gross Value Added (GVA) for industry hit an all time low. As per the statistics from the Ministry of Industry, it had fallen from 10.7% in March 2016 to 3.8% in March 2017 because of demonetisation.

Similarly, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) that was growing at 5.3% in February 2016 dropped to 1.9% in March 2017. “This indicates that demonetisation has failed,” she said.

The bank credit growth at 5.3% was the lowest in the last 63 years, she said.

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise of providing two crore jobs per year, she said the government was nowhere close to it. “As per the promise, the government should have created 6 crore jobs in the last three years. But as per a statistics from the Labour Department, only 2.35 lakh jobs have been created,” Ms. Sharmistha said.

Even Mr. Modi’s flagship programme of ‘Make in India’ failed miserably, as the country received only 14% FDI so far.

Ms. Sharmistha said the PSU banks were bleeding as the NPA (non performing assets) had gone up to ₹6.14 lakh crore in March 2017 from ₹1.73 lakh crore in March 2014.

Casting doubts on the $40 billion earning by the government from the oil sector, she said: “The crude price per barrel has come down to about $47 from $107, and the government has earned a whopping $40 billion from the oil price. Where has the money gone and we do not see any reduction in the oil prices.”

On demonetisation, she said it was the biggest blunder that the Modi government had committed.

“They called it as a ‘surgical strike’ on black money. We pose just three questions: How much black money has been found, how much fake currency has been found, and how much money has been re-deposited? There is no answer to these questions,” said Ms. Sharmistha.

“The loan waiver for the farmers is not on track. The MSP has not been decided upon and farmer suicides continue unchecked. This shows that even the farm sector is not happy,” she said.

Railway zone

“The promise for separate railway for AP with Visakhapatnam as headquarters, which was made in the AP Reorganisation Act, is still to be fulfilled and so is the promise for SCS,” she said. “The NDA government is giving AP a step-motherly treatment,” she added.

On consensus for the presidential candidate, she said it was up to the ruling party to come out with a name.

“If the candidate is to our liking, we shall have a consensus. Otherwise, we shall field our candidate and have an election. Ms. Sonia Gandhi has already formed a committee with like-minded parties and let’s wait and see,” she said.

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