Mumbai, Jun 13 (PTI) Former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha on Saturday accused the BJP-led Centre of relying on falsehood rather than addressing what he described as a deepening economic crisis facing the country.
He was speaking about the economy at Tilak Bhavan, the Maharashtra Congress’s headquarters, in Mumbai’s Dadar area.
Sinha alleged that the government was presenting inflated economic data and claimed the crisis confronting the country was the result of policies pursued over the past 10-12 years rather than external developments such as the Iran-Israel conflict.
He said concerns over India’s growth figures were being ignored because “truth is getting lost in the storm of propaganda”.
The IMF (International Monetary Fund) has made observations on “persistent methodological shortcomings in India’s national accounts”, he claimed, stressing that the issue deserves greater public attention.
According to the former finance minister, India’s capital formation has remained stagnant at around 32-33 per cent of GDP over the last decade, and the growth figures of 7.7 per cent presented by the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi were “false”.
“Modi must go, sooner the better,” he said.
The 88-year-old former BJP leader said the ‘Viksit Bharat 2047’ target has been kept so far away that “neither they will be alive nor we will be alive” to answer questions about its fulfilment.
Recalling his own tenure in the finance ministry when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the PM, Sinha said he never considered manipulating official data and instead sought to strengthen the statistical system through an independent National Statistical Commission.
Attacking the 2016 demonetisation exercise, he claimed none of its objectives had been achieved and said even BJP leaders had stopped speaking about it because “nothing was achieved”. He further alleged that India’s growth rate declined sharply after the move.
Sinha said the present economic difficulties stemmed from a “deepening crisis” over the last decade and warned of worsening rural distress due to El Nino, which affects weather patterns worldwide, and fertiliser shortages. He claimed net foreign direct investment was flowing out of the country and alleged that over Rs 3 lakh crore had left India in the past two years.
Expressing concern over shortages of petroleum products and LPG, Sinha said such a situation had not been witnessed even during the 1991 balance of payments crisis.
On foreign policy, he accused the government of becoming excessively deferential towards the United States and criticised the response to the deportation of Indians from the US in handcuffs.
Referring to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s remark that India does not “do mediation”, Sinha asked whether India had been indulging in “brokerage” when Jawaharlal Nehru spearheaded the Non-Aligned Movement.
He also said India was becoming merely a consumer of artificial intelligence technologies instead of developing indigenous systems.
Expressing concern over what he termed politics driven by revenge, Sinha said previous governments from Nehru to Vajpayee had faced crises with determination, but alleged that the present dispensation lacked the will to confront challenges.
He accused the present government of “managing things through lies”.
Sinha said when he was a part of the government, there was respect towards opposition leaders and they were not considered enemies.
Calling upon Congress workers to reconnect with the masses, Sinha said the party bore the greatest responsibility to “save the country” and urged its cadres to take to the streets.
“Movements will not happen from offices. Movements will not happen on Twitter and Facebook. Movements will happen on the ground and on the streets,” he said, adding that workers should be prepared to face lathi charges, imprisonment and bullets.
Sinha, who is currently not affiliated with any political party, said the responsibility of putting the country back on the right path rests with the Congress, “just as the task of securing Independence once rested with the party”. PTI MR NR
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