Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi again. Gandhi tweeted a news article in Business Standard which quoted businessman NR Narayana Murthy as saying that India’s Gross Domestic Product may hit the lowest rate of growth since Independence.
“Modi hai toh mumkin hai [If there is Modi, it is possible],” Gandhi tweeted.
India’s GDP growth rate has been projected to be negative in 2020-’21, due to the lockdown imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus. “India’s GDP is expected to shrink by at least 5%,” Murthy said on Tuesday. “There is a fear that we may even reach the lowest GDP [growth] since independence, since 1947.”
Murthy added that a new system should be developed under which every business in every sector is able to operate at full strength while taking precautions. He also said that people should be prepared to live with the contagion. The software guru was participating in a discussion on “Leading India’s Digital Revolution” during the 16th edition of Institute of Engineering and Technology’s India Digital Conversations, held via video conferencing.
Gandhi has frequently targeted Modi about the economy, the Centre’s handling of the coronavirus crisis and India’s border standoff with China. On August 9, Gandhi claimed that Modi’s policies have put 14 crore people out of work. He said Modi had failed to provide the two crore jobs every year that he promised, and then enacting policies that “destroyed India’s economic structure”, leaving many people without jobs.
Among the bad policies listed by Gandhi are the demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes, poor implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, and the lockdown imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
On August 8, Gandhi questioned the Centre’s efforts in containing the coronavirus outbreak in India and said the Narendra Modi-led government was missing in action even when the country’s tally has breached the 20-lakh mark. The Congress leader tagged his own tweet from July 17, in which he had warned that India will cross 20 lakh coronavirus cases by August 10.
On July 27, the Congress leader insisted that the Chinese have occupied Indian land and denying this was “anti-national”. On the other hand, he said, bringing the truth to the notice of the people is the patriotic thing to do. At least 20 Indian soldiers died and 76 were wounded in a clash with their Chinese counterparts in Galwan Valley in Ladakh on June 15.
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