Senior Congress leader and former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said on Saturday that India is growing, but the sequential quarterly growth rate is falling and the pace of the economy is slowing down.
Chidambaram also accused the central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “neglecting” the poor and the poorest of the poor. He said, “The reality is that we are growing, but the quarter-on-quarter growth or sequential quarter growth is coming down, ie 13.2 per cent in the first quarter, 6.3 per cent in the second, 4.4 per cent in the third and my estimate in the fourth quarter. to be between 4.1 per cent and 4.3 per cent.
“Therefore, it is a falling quarterly growth rate, which means the Indian economy is slowing down,” Chidambaram said at the ‘India Today Conclave’. When asked about India’s rapid rise among the world’s major economies, the former finance minister said, “It is no boast to say that I am the king of the blind.”
He said, “China is five and a half times bigger than India. So the relevant number is per capita income and we are still a very poor country in terms of per capita income.”
Chidambaram also said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA government was at fault for not providing a fiscal stimulus during the pandemic. He said, “The government had done wrong by not giving fiscal stimulus. That’s why three crore people had to go back to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh from other cities and states.
Asked what would be the one thing for which he would credit the Modi government, Chidambaram said he would credit this government for its focus on deficit and debt management.
Chidambaram said, “I have no hesitation in giving credit for this, but all I am saying is that there is a lot more to be done.” “A prime minister with so much energy, manpower and control over his party can do a lot (of work). Instead, we are talking about a nonfiction interview and documentary. Why are we wasting time on those things?”
Neelkanth Mishra, member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, said that the most important thing right now is that if India is seen as a stable economy in this global financial turmoil, it should attract foreign investors, foreign companies. Will continue to bring what skills and technology can bring. Mishra also argued that the quarterly GDP figures are grossly inaccurate.
