Congress president Rahul Gandhi reacted with sarcasm to the findings of the Economic Survey, tweeting with hashtag “#Acche Din (Good Days)” to point out that industrial growth, agriculture, GDP and job growth were all down.
He tagged a video of the famous Bobby McFerrin song, “Don’t worry, be Happy!” in his tweet.
Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, however, offered a detailed analysis and said the Survey was a “refreshingly candid document that has brought to surface the internal contradictions within the government”.
He said that the Survey was an indictment of the government and an admission that the government had failed to deliver on education, employment and agriculture.
“The future course of the economy is conditional on many ifs. After listing the unfinished work (and there are many), the Survey seems to prepare the grounds for failure by praying that (1) the world economy maintains its growth momentum and (2) oil prices do not persist at current levels. The outlook is therefore uncertain, if not bleak,” he said in a statement. He said the Survey showed that the government in its last year of office is relying on private sector investments and exports to rescue the economy.
