Sisodia slams PM's claims on GDP slowdown

NEW DELHI: Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assertion that the

economy was on a firm footing and likened him to a surgeon who claims that the operation has been successful even when the patient is on the verge of death.

Sisodia also claimed the PM presented the "facts wrong" when he spoke on the GDP slowdown on Wednesday.

He was referring to the PM's address on Wednesday to a gathering of Company Secretaries, where he had said that his government will continue reforms and not hesitate to take decisions to reverse the GDP slowdown witnessed in the last two quarters.

Taking potshots at the PM, Sisodia said, "If I summarise PM's speech ...you are patting yourself like a doctor who says the operation was successful but the patient is dying."

The PM tried to present an economic picture before the nation, but it was more imaginary with little facts, he told reporters.

Sisodia, who is also the Finance minister of Delhi, said contrary to the PM's claim, the GDP fell from 9.1 per cent to 5.7 per cent in the last six quarters.

"He has either lied about the economic crisis or has presented facts wrong," he told reporters here.

Modi had on Wednesday slammed his critics saying they were seeing slowdown in the last two quarters but were ignoring the fact that the BJP government had brought down inflation from 10 per cent in the UPA regime to 2.5 per cent, shrunk Current Account Deficit to near 1 per cent from 4 per cent, and brought down fiscal deficit to 3.5 per cent from 4.5 per cent.

The Deputy Chief Minister said decline of even one per cent in the GDP renders 10 lakh people jobless.

Sisodia said Modi did not speak about job creation. The job market is down and there are no fresh investments coming in, he claimed.