New Delhi: Hitting out at the BJP-led government for being “complacent” in the face of a severe economic crisis, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday said a situation of “gloom and doom” has been prevailing in the country.
“The Narendra Modi-led government has talked about achieving a five-trillion-dollar-economy by 2024. Now, it looks like a pipe dream,” said Singh, at a meeting of the Congress’ senior leaders in New Delhi.
“In 2008-19, the economy was of the size of $2.7 trillion. If we have to reach $5 trillion, we need to have a growth rate of 12 per cent in nominal terms and 9 per cent in real terms. If the economy goes down quarter after quarter then there is no hope that the PM’s promise will become a reality,” added Singh.
The meeting was attended by the party’s general secretaries, Congress Legislative Party leaders, state Congress chiefs and chief ministers at its headquarters in the capital.
India is going through its worst economic slump in the last five years, with the automobile industry facing a severe slowdown in the past two decades and a steep decline in the value of the rupee.
“The rupee is getting weaker. The government can use it to push exports but the BJP has been sluggish. Investment is not picking up and the automobile industry is crying out for help. A million people will lose their jobs at this rate,” Singh said
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‘Gloom and doom’ economy
Focusing on the fact that agriculture is the “cornerstone” of any economy, the former PM pointed out how the growth rate in this sector has been barely 2.7 per cent.
“The dangerous point is that real wage rate in the rural agriculture sector has been static for the last five years,” he said.
Recalling the economic crisis in 2008, during his second term as PM, Singh said the Congress had faced it head-on and converted the slump into an opportunity to revitalise the country’s growth rate.
“The government today is complacent enough to not realise that we are in the middle of an economic slowdown,” he said.
Considering the hit that various sectors have been taking, Singh believed there will be no scope for job creation in the future.
Decline across various sectors
The Congress leader also flagged decline of the Indian rupee, slump in the real estate and manufacturing sectors as well as the automobile industry.
“It is no surprise that demand for manufactured goods is going down. All around, there is an atmosphere of gloom and doom,” he added.
Singh also said that it was the Congress’ responsibility — as the Opposition — to make the people aware of the current scenario.
“The government should come up with plan to promote investment but there is tax terrorism in place of incentivising investment with no signs that private sector investment will increase. BJP has misled country. What is being done is a cosmetic exercise,” he said.
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Ex-PM advising current PM is Tweedledee telling Tweedledum. One an extreme left wing Marxist and the other an extreme left wing Marxist, both practitioners of the Nehruvian philosophy of government knows best. Both past masters at doing exactly the opposite of what they preach, when in government. What ex-PM says needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Does he remember gloom & doom he left behind when he exited the PM job in 2014. Or should I remind him the rampart corruption of his ten years on the job.
Caution is the word for him in his criticism…….
It did not happen overnight. We have not fought a war as in 1971. There has been no spectacular rise in commodity prices or a global financial crisis as in 2008. The wounds are self inflicted. There has been a stubborn refusal to see a good doctor ( no pun intended). There is enough political capital for Moses to part the seas.
It is just a ₹5 rupee bunkum socialist economy