New Delhi: Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram has hit out at the NDA government at the Centre over the stimulus package.
Chidambaram and former Minister Jairam Ramesh said at a press conference that the stimulus was an attempt at headline management in order to turn focus away from the negative news.
Chidambaram said as these rates are calculated y-o-y (year-on-year), it must be remembered that in Q1 of 2019-20, the growth rate was 5.2 per cent and in Q1 of 2020-21 it was -23.9 per cent. Similarly, in Q2 of 2019-2O, the growth rate was 4.4 per cent and in Q2 of 2020-21 it is expected to be -8.6 per cent.
“There is nothing to be pleased about these rates. These rates mean that we are still unable to catch up with even the tepid growth rates recorded in 2019-20. I am afraid the remaining quarters of 2020-21 will also record negative growth rates. It is therefore surprising that the finance minister should quote the RBI as predicting that the economy will register a positive growth rate in the third quarter. Nearly one-and-a-half months of the third quarter is already over and there are no signs that the growth rate will turn positive in the third quarter,” he added.
He added: “The economy continues to be in dire straits and the government does not have a plan to revive the economy. On the other hand, it is busy deflecting the attention of the people from the economy and managing the headlines about the economy.”