Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur has countered Congress leader P Chidambaram’s attack on the government over its handling of the economy, saying the economy is resilient and will rebound soon based on consistent reforms carried out by the government.
He said he isn’t surprised when Chidambaram chose to “ignore hard data” and indulged in “whataboutery”. “Consistent reforms and strong fundamentals have ensured India had a swift rebound from a contraction of 24.4 per cent in the 1st quarter of FY 2020-21 to a growth of 1.6 per cent in the 4th quarter of FY 2020-21,” said.
Referring to the “gloomy forecast” portrayed by Chidambaram, Thakur said international agencies project India to grow by 12.5 per cent in FY 2021-22, making India the only major economy to have a projected double-digit growth,” the minister added.
Chidambaram on Tuesday termed financial year FY 2020/21 as “the darkest year of the economy in four decades” and said most Indians are poorer than they were two years ago. For this, the government must admit its “errors of commission and omission, reverse its policies and heed the advice of economists and the opposition”.
When Chidambaram said the prediction of the V-shaped economic recovery was a false story and “They saw ‘green shoots’ when no one else did.We had expressed our strong reservations and warned there were no signs of a recovery. Our pleas fell on deaf ears, and the result is negative growth of (-) 7.3 per cent,”
Thakur said only an ostrich would deny the V-shaped growth in Indian economy.
Only an Ostrich would deny this graph is V shaped. pic.twitter.com/2njNojUsGk
— Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) June 2, 2021
Rebutting Chidambaram, Thakur questioned the Congress leader by asking whether the Indian economy is an island in isolation in terms of the economic impact of the pandemic.
Have other major economies not faced a GDP contraction? Are you not aware that France, Germany, Italy, the UK contracted by 8.2 per cent, 4.9 per cent, 8.9 per cent and 9.9 per cent, respectively,” Thakur questioned
Countering Chidambaram’s claim that not much progress has been made on cash transfers, Anurag Thakur said the present NDA government procured 306.9 million tonnes of paddy and 162.7 million tonnes of wheat last 5 years. In contrast, during the UPA tenure (2009-2013), only 176.8 million tonnes of paddy and 139.5 million tonnes of wheat was procured.”
The eighth instalment of PM KISAN via direct benefit transfer provided Rs 19,000 crore directly to farmers. “Does this not give farmers “cash in hand,” he asked.
