Economic slowdown: BJP cannot hide behind power-point presentation, says Congress
CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said the government’s fundamental policies were flawed, and called the finance minister’s announcements cosmetic.
The Congress on Saturday called Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s measures to tackle the economic slowdown partial and incomplete, reported PTI. The party also questioned if there was any concrete plan to address the country’s falling Gross Domestic Product and rising non-performing asset.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the Narendra Modi-led government has brought the economy to a “bad shape”, and they cannot hide it with a mere power-point presentation.
“Finance Minister, the government through 32 slides of a power-point presentation cannot hide the bad shape of economy that the BJP has brought it to,” Surjewala said in a tweet. “The country is reeling under recession. The Modi government is only doing half and incomplete rollback of the provisions it imposed.”
“The GDP is falling badly, NPAs are rising rapidly day and night, but where is the concrete solution?” he asked.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said the government’s fundamental policies were flawed and called the finance minister’s announcements cosmetic.
“Government’s announcements yesterday about the economy are nothing but another attempt at PR and managing headlines,” Yechury said in a tweet. “When fundamental policies are flawed, expertise is missing, there is no sense of direction and data constantly fudged, these cosmetic steps do not matter.”
“Withdrawing surcharge on the super-rich, no concessions for farmers committing distress suicides or any plans for employment generation! What is left out from these proposals is any concern for crores of ordinary people!,” Yechury added.
The CPI(M) leader also asked if Budget announcements have any sanctity left. “It is one of the most important functions of the Parliament, which seems to have been discarded in the favour of these PR exercises by the govt,” he said. “So much for democratic accountability.”
On Friday, Sitharaman had announced a slew of measures to revive economic growth and markets including the withdrawal of higher taxes for foreign portfolio investors, exemption of startups from angel tax, and a package to address distress in the auto sector and upfront infusion of Rs 70,000 crore to public sector banks.
The country’s GDP growth rate touched a five-year low of 5.8% in the January to March 2019 period. On Thursday, NITI Aayog Vice Chairperson Rajiv Kumar had called for extraordinary measures to deal with the crisis in the financial sector.
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