New Delhi: Leaving no stones unturned, Opposition TMC on Saturday made a scathing attack on the government and claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to keep promises in his seven years of the regime. While speaking on the current economic situation here, former Union Minister and senior Trinamool Congress leader Yashwant Sinha claimed, "The current state of the Indian economy is a very big issue and the incumbent government is trying to hide behind the pandemic crisis."
The veteran politician also claimed that "The disastrous decision of demonetisation" is the main reason behind the plummet in the economic growth rate. "No single objectives have been achieved in the seven years," Sinha said.
The party also claimed that the main aspects of the decline of the economic growth rate, especially since 2016 are the rate of inflation, the unemployment rate and government finances especially taxes on petroleum products. During the erstwhile Congress regime, in 2013, the growth rate of the Indian economy was 6.39 per cent (in US Dollar terms) and rising. The growth momentum continued even after Narendra Modi assumed office and touched a high of 8.26 per cent in 2016. However, since then it has been downhill all the way with the growth rate declining to 6.80 per cent in 2016, 6.53 per cent in 2017, 4.04 per cent in 2019 and finally to –7.96 per cent in 2020 (during the COVID situation).
"The point to be noted is that even before the pandemic hit India, its growth rate was on a consistently declining trajectory. It is obvious that the disastrous decision to demonetise the currency was the sole cause of this and almost five years later one can say without fear of contradiction that this step failed completely and did not achieve even a single of its avowed objectives," the former finance minister claimed.
On inflation, Sinha said, in 2013 the rate of inflation according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was very high at 11.06 per cent and this was one of the chief causes of the electoral defeat of the UPA government in 2014. It moderated to 6.65 per cent in 2014, 4.91 per cent in 2015, however, rose marginally to 4.95 per cent in 2016 and again came down to 3.33 per cent in 2017. The figure stood at 3.95 per cent in 2018, 3.72 per cent in 2019 and then went up by a whopping 2.90 per cent to 6.62 per cent in 2020. In July this year, it stood at 5.6 per cent. "Though the economic growth rate was low during FY 20-21 due to the pandemic situation globally and country-wide lockdown, the inflation rate was high," he added further.
TMC also blamed the NDA government for the current unemployment rate of 7.11 per cent. "The rate of unemployment was 5.67 per cent in 2013. The figures from 2014 to 2019 stood at 5.60 per cent, 5.56 per cent, 5.51 per cent, 5.41 per cent, 5.33 per cent and 5.27 per cent until 2020, then it went up to 7.11 per cent. Thus, in all the years of the Modi government unemployment was in excess of 5 per cent and rose to a new high in the absence of adequate measures to deal with this issue especially relating to migrant workers as a result of the pandemic," Sinha told media persons.
Like other opposition parties, Trinamool Congress has been raising these issues both inside and outside the Parliament. The month-long standoff between the ruling NDA government and the opposition parties caused a logjam during the recent Monsoon Session of Parliament. Price hike of petroleum, deisel and the cooking gas is one of the key issues; they are countering the central government.
TMC claimed that the government collects around Rs. 75,000 crore annually from petroleum, diesel and cooking gas, but in this year the government at the Centre has collected Rs. 3.36 lakh crore from the sector. Sinha said, "The consumers in India were not allowed ever to enjoy the benefits of moderating international crude oil prices which had plummeted to $19.90 a barrel in April 2020. This is the real milch cow for the government of India, more so because the bulk of this revenue is not shared with the state governments."
In FY 2021 alone, petrol prices were hiked 76 times and diesel prices 73 times. "This is nothing but daylight robbery on an unsuspecting populace," he asserted further. Moreover, the ruling party of West Bengal also claimed that the Centre is not supporting the states in the central schemes. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also accused the Centre of this issue several times.