'Iceberg to Titanic': Rahul Gandhi takes a dig at PM Modi

NEW DELHI: In a cryptic tweet on Thursday, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for describing critics of economic slowdown as "pessimists."

"In other news Iceberg to Titanic: Reports of disaster exaggerated by pessimists," tweeted Rahul on Tuesday.



While one cannot be sure what Rahul exactly meant by his "Iceberg to Titanic" tweet, one interpretation could be that the captain of the Titanic ignored the warning about the iceberg, leading to the sinking of the "unsinkable" ship. PM Modi may be repeating the mistake of the Titanic captain by ignoring the warning of "pessimists" about the Indian economy.

PM Modi, in his address at the golden jubilee celebrations of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India on Wednesday, has accused "pessimists" of treating the 5.7 per cent growth in April-June as doomsday.

"These people suffer from Shalya-vrutti (pessimism). They sleep well only after they spread a feeling of pessimism all around. We need to recognise such people," PM Modi charged.

The government's economic policies have recently come under fire from within BJP.

A few days ago, former finance minister Yashwant Sinha had called demonetisation "an unmitigated economic disaster" and the GST rollout "badly conceived and poorly implemented," in a piece published in a leading daily.

Former Union minister Arun Shourie, who served in the Vajpayee cabinet, too, on Wednesday criticised the Modi government for sliding economic growth and increasing job losses.