Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday once again criticised Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and asked her not to “blame God” for a man-made economic disaster, a day after the dismal Gross Domestic Product figures were released. In an interview with NDTV, the former finance minister added that the government’s stimulus package of Rs 20 lakh crore was a “joke”.
Data released by the Centre on Monday showed that the Indian economy contracted by 23.9% in the second quarter of April-June, registering the most devastating fall in decades, as the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus upended livelihoods and businesses. The numbers reflect the onset of the deepest recession in India since 1996, when the country first began publishing its quarterly GDP figures.
“Don’t blame god,” Chidambaram told NDTV on Tuesday. “In fact you should thank god. God has blessed the farmers of the country.” Sitharaman had last week termed the pandemic an “Act of God” to justify a revenue shortfall of Rs 2.35 lakh crore under the goods and service tax regime.
“The pandemic is a natural disaster,” the Congress leader added. “But you are compounding the pandemic, a natural disaster, with a man-made disaster.”
The Narendra Modi government in March had announced a Rs 20 lakh crore economic package to help people tide over the economic impact of the pandemic. But government data showed that consumer demand, investment and exports are yet to show any signs of recovery. All sectors of the economy have also suffered tremendously, except agriculture, which grew by 3.4% in the quarter.
“It [the economic package] is a joke,” Chidambaram said. He added that India’s economy had been stumbling for years before the pandemic under the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government. The Congress leader also questioned Chief Economic Adviser KV Subramanian’s claim that the economy would register a tentative recovery in the next quarter on the back of a “V-shaped recovery”.
“I don’t know if anyone takes the chief economic adviser seriously,” Chidambaram said. “When is the last time he had a conversation with the prime minister? He has been predicting V-shaped recovery for months. Then he saw green shoots when the Finance Minister said it. Where are the green shoots?”
In February, Sitharaman had claimed that “green shoots” were visible in the Indian economy, and had dismissed the Opposition’s concerns about a slump in the country’s GDP. “There are seven important indicators which show that there are green shoots in the economy...economy is not in trouble,” the finance minister had claimed.
But Chidambaram claimed that all data and facts that Sitharaman relied on to back this claim have been refuted by the Reserve Bank of India in its annual report for 2019-’20. The former finance minister added that the government should either borrow heavily or monetize deficit in order to recover from the economic shock.
“In common parlance, print money to cover part of the deficit, which is part of the government’s sovereign right,” he said. “This is the time to borrow, spend, boost demand, put money in the hands of the poor so that consumption increases.”
Hours after the GDP figures were released on Monday, Chidambaram had said that the government should be ashamed of itself for doing “literally nothing” to cushion the fall by taking suitable fiscal and welfare measures. He added that the country was paying a heavy price for the nonchalance of the government.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!