Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday reiterated his stance against the Narendra Modi-led government’s demonetisation drive and said the Indian economy was running on “just one engine of public spending”. Singh made the comments during the Congress Working Committee meeting.
The former prime minister said demonetisation was responsible for the slowdown in India’s economy and cited a “collapse in private sector investment” and the reduction of the industry’s gross value-added growth from 10.7% in March 2016 to 3.8% in March 2017. “The most worrisome aspect is the impact on job creation,” Singh said. “The construction industry, which is one of the largest employment generators in the country, has suffered a contraction. This implies loss of millions of jobs for the nation’s workforce.”
During the Opposition party’s meet, senior leaders analysed the state of the Indian economy. Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram spoke about how the launch of the Goods and Service Tax regime could lead to “administrative hiccups and inflation”.
Party President Sonia Gandhi, who chaired the meeting, also criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party’s policies. “If we just look at demonetisation... till today the government refuses to disclose how much of the demonetised currency in circulation actually returned to the banks,” Gandhi was quoted as saying. “It is not that the RBI has forgotten how to count money; it is that actual numbers show that the scheme was a disaster.”
Besides the economy, Sonia Gandhi also said Dalits, tribals, minorities and women were facing “perilous times” as “those who follow different tenets and beliefs” were being assaulted.
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