India enters first recession on Dhanteras: Leaders, netizens react to RBI report

After the first ever published 'nowcast' report of the RBI suggested that India may have entered recession for the first time in history, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday targeted the government over the state of the economy. He claimed the country has entered into a recession for the first time in history due to the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"India has entered into recession for the first time in history. Mr Modi's actions have turned India's strength into its weakness," he said on Twitter. 

A recession is defined as two successive quarters of decline. India's economy had shrunk about 24 per cent in the first quarter ended June. The nowcast report of the RBI indicated that India's GDP growth is likely to have contracted 8.6 per cent in the second quarter as well, suggesting that the country might well be in a recession already. The government is due to publish official statistics on November 27. 

Reacting to the recession news, the Congress, too, lashed out at the Modi government. "This is a direct result of the Modi government's incompetence, foolish economic policies and disastrous tactics," it tweeted. 

The Aam Aadmi Party targeted Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. "𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆. Congratulations to Finance Minister @nsitharaman for achieving this feat," it tweeted. 

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh went a step further to criticise the government's economic reforms, saying the "foundations for this (recession) were of course laid well before the COVID-19 pandemic".

Social media users did not miss to point out the irony behind India's first official recession, which comes on Dhanteras, an extremely auspicious day for Hindus to buy gold and silver.