A war of words has broken out between the Congress and the Modi government over veteran BJP leader Yashwant Sinha’s comment that the “Indian economy is in a mess” right now.
Countering his father, Jayant Sinha, the junior Aviation Minister, claimed that the Modi government’s policy initiatives were bringing about “structural reforms” that are “transformational” in nature.
Almost immediately, the former Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, who had endorsed the views expressed by Mr. Sinha on Wednesday, said the junior aviation minister’s defence read like a press release issued by the government’s publicity wing, the Press Information Bureau.
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“Jayant Sinha’s article in ToI reads like a PIB press release. He should know that administrative changes are not structural reforms,” tweeted Mr. Chidambaram.
Explanation sought
Countering Mr. Jayant Sinha, in a series of tweets, Mr. Chidambaram asked for an explanation about “a steady decline in GDP numbers over the past five quarters, negative credit growth to industry, no increase in investments and poor demand for electricity.”
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On Monday, Mr. Yashwant Sinha had written that he would be “failing in his national duty if he didn’t speak up even now against the mess the Finance Minister has created with the economy.”
While BJP ministers including Rajnath Singh and Piyush Goyal have come out to defend the government’s economic track record, former Commerce Minister Anand Sharma joined the debate by squarely blaming the Prime Minister for the economy.
“PM Modi is singularly responsible for inflicting grave damage on the economy by his reckless decisions including demonetisation and hasty imposition of a flawed GST,” said Mr. Sharma, Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha.
He argued that the note ban and a flawed GST implementation had affected small businesses adversely and that, in turn, creating more unemployment.