Former PM of India Dr. Manmohan Singh blamed India’s growth slump on “all-round mismanagement” by the government in a critique of its economic performance. He urged the PM Narendra Modi administration to set aside its “vendetta politics” and reach out to all “sane voices and thinking minds” to find ways of steering the economy out of “this man-made crisis”.
Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2019
Singh alleged that government policies had led to a massive loss of jobs, rural distress and “unabated tax terrorism”, in a statement issued in the wake of GDP growth having slowed the most in six years in the June quarter. He questioned the rationale behind the transfer of Rs 1.76 lakh crore from RBI’s surplus and said the “man-made blunders of demonetisation and a hastily implemented GST (goods and services tax)” had crippled the economy, especially the crucial manufacturing sector, which “is tottering at 0.6%” growth.
“The last quarter’s GDP rate of 5% signals that we are in the midst of a prolonged slowdown,” said Singh, who has also been finance minister and RBI governor.
Singh pointed out that that India’s domestic demand is depressed and consumption growth is at an 18-month low. “Nominal GDP growth is at a 15-year low. There is a gaping hole in tax revenues. Tax buoyancy remains elusive as businessmen, small and big, are hounded and tax terrorism continues unabated. Investor sentiments are in doldrums. These are not the foundations for economic recovery,” he said
“The Modi government’s policies are resulting in massive job-less growth. More than 3.5 lakh jobs have been lost in the automobile sector alone. There will similarly be large scale job losses in the informal sector, hurting our most vulnerable workers. Rural India is in terrible shape. Farmers are not receiving adequate prices and rural incomes have declined. The low inflation rate that the Modi government likes to showcase comes at the cost of our farmers and their incomes, by inflicting misery on over 50 per cent of India’s population,” said the former PM.
Singh also claimed that “institutions are under attack” and their autonomy is being eroded. “The resilience of the RBI will be tested after its record transfer of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore to the government, which claims that it does not have a plan on what it will do with this windfall,” he said/
In addition, the former Prime Minister said, the credibility of India’s data has come under question under the Modi government. “Budget announcements and rollbacks have shaken the confidence of international investors. India has not been able to increase its exports to take advantage of opportunities that have arisen in global trade due to geopolitical realignments. Such is the state of economic management under the Modi government.”
India’s youth, farmers and farm workers, entrepreneurs and the marginalised sections deserve better, Singh said, urging the government to “put aside vendetta politics”, and reach out to all sane voices and thinking minds, “to steer our economy out of this man-made crisis”.
