The Congress today launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying "Modinomics" has destroyed India's growth story.
The main opposition party also termed as a "shoddy attempt" by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to defend the "decimation" of the economy after he reeled out economic indicators to support the government's contention that GDP growth slowdown has bottomed out and economy is turning around.
"'Modinomics' has destroyed India's growth story. A shoddy attempt of a desperate finance minister Arun Jaitley to defend the decimation of economy has failed to impress either the Indian industry or common people. The growth as projected by the government is only on paper," Congress' communications department incharge Randeep Surjewala said.
Surjewala said decisions like noteban and "poor" implementation of GST hurt the core of macro and micro economic fundamentals, and expressed concern over growing NPAs of public sector banks.
The bank recapitalisation plan announced by the finance minister neither has a roadmap nor a timeframe, he said, asking the government to do a reality check and share a targeted framework of bank recapitalisation rather than engage in "hyperbole and high-sounding syllables".
On Jaitley's claim that the macro economic fundamentals of economy are very strong, he said, "On the contrary, mindless and unsound decisions like demonetisation and the poor implementation of GST has hurt the core of the fundamentals of macro and micro economic fundamentals."
The Congress leader alleged common people were being made to suffer, jobs were in peril, and medium and small industries in dire straits, as economy stuttered due to demonetisation and GST roll out. "Time has come to travel from empty jumlas (rhetoric) to meaningful governance," he said in a statement.
Congress spokesperson Sushmita Dev said if the prime minister or the finance minister were claiming "all is well", they should go to Gujarat and listen to what the people were saying.
"Today, if the economy is turning around, then why is there 'no feel good factor among the people. I will tell the prime minister and the finance minister that all is not well," she said.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said on Twitter, "If Economy was a wish-horse Arun Jaitley could have ridden it. Fact- in 41 months he created a new bumper sticker 'Hey honey I sunk the Economy'."
Surjewala said the NPAs of public sector banks jumped from 36 per cent in March 2014 to 82 per cent in June 2017-- from Rs 36,000 crore to Rs 8.35 lakh crore.
Noting that the money given for recapitalisation of banks will increase the fiscal deficit, he said, "This is a desperate move by a finance minister groping in the dark as demonetisation and GST failed to bring in the promised Rs 4-5 lakh crore."
Jaitley today announced a Rs 2.11 lakh crore bank recapitalisation plan to revive investment and growth.
Accusing the government of waiving loans worth Rs 1,88,287 crore of wilful defaulters in the last three years, the Congress leader asked, "Is the government risking taxpayers' money for more such loan waivers without commitment to MSME and agrarian sectors?"
On Bharatmala project, he said it is completely debt driven with the burden falling on people of India.
Bharatmala is an umbrella programme under which 34,800 km of highways will be constructed at a cost of Rs 5.35 lakh crore.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)