The Congress endorsed former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha’s view that the “Indian economy is in a mess” under the Narendra Modi government.
“It is not often that the principal Opposition party will welcome a statement of a veteran leader of the ruling party. Today, I warmly applaud the article of Mr. Yashwant Sinha because it speaks the truth about the economy,” former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said at a a press conference here on Wednesday.
Mr. Chidambaram said he agreed with Mr. Sinha’s observation that the economy’s actual growth was 3.7% instead of 5.7% if one took into account the change in the methodology for computing GDP.
Accusing the Modi government of being “clueless about what is causing the economic decline,” he said: “It will be a miracle if they can turn it around.”
Mr. Sinha, now part of the BJP’s Marg Darshak Mandal (Group for Guidance), said in an opinion piece that the economy was in the doldrums “as private investment has shrunk as never before in two decades, industrial production has all but collapsed, agriculture is in distress and the construction industry, that is a big employer of the workforce, is in the doldrums.”
Asked whether setting up of the the Economic Advisory Council would help to improve things, Mr. Chidambaram said: “It is like applying band aid to several broken limbs.”
Tweaking the BJP’s original slogan Achhe din aanewale hain (Good days are going to be here), Mr. Chidambaram used another Hindi phrase that people have now started asking: acche din to aaye nahi, yeh burre din kab jaayenge ? (Since good days didn’t arrive, when will the bad days leave?)
Urging industry to speak out on the economy, Mr. Chidambaram alleged that there was “an atmosphere of fear” that prevented people from speaking out. “Indian industry does not complain.
They complain to us privately... Indian industry must speak out… Indian industry must, at least, have the courage to speak on matters relating to the economy,” he said.
