As Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP undertake an election campaign focussing on the issue of nationalism, the Congress insisted that the real issue in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls is the state of the economy, which it claimed had been badly affected by the wrong policies of the Modi government.
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“However much the prime minister tries to hijack the narrative, ultimately we believe that the people of India will vote on the state of the economy,” said senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram.
“There are no jobs. The people can see there is not enough investment in the areas they live in. There is no increase in their incomes. These are the issues that matter to the voter when she enters the polling booth,” he said.
The former finance minister said that there was a downturn in every aspect of the economy, and the next government has a huge task reviving it. “Thankfully, the Congress party is ready to steer the Indian economy out of the Modi-Jaitley slump,” he said.
The Congress described Modi as naukri vinash Prime minister, saying its tughlaqi farmans of demonetisation and GST resulted in the country losing over 1.1 crore jobs in 2018 alone. The party claimed that the economy has entered a disastrous phase of slowdown as reflected by a consistent fall in the quarterly growth of real GDP. It said a massive shortfall of Rs 1.6 lakh crore in the tax revenues would effectively increase the actual fiscal deficit to 3.9 per cent.
The principal opposition party claimed that the slowdown was confirmed by household savings and private consumption data, both of which have declined. Investments have come to a halt, it said, pointing out that the number of new factories built under the Modi government is just 3400 per year.
The other economic parameters referred to by the Congress to attack the Modi government include a “four-fold” rise in banking frauds and wilful defaults. “A select few businesses, often in close association with the prime minister, have acted with impunity and led to the current crisis,” Chidambaram said.
Weak exports and the decline in the value of rupee were also listed as indicators of the decline in the Indian economy.
