Arun Jaitley's claims on economy factually wrong: Congress

The Congress today accused Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of giving people an untrue picture on the state of the country's economy and alleged that the government lacked a plan to put the economy on back on track.

The Modi government had "hurt" the economy and "put it in the ICU" with job losses and hardships to farmers and businessmen as well as labourers and common people, Congress chief spokesperson Anand Sharma said.

Hitting out at the BJP for its plan to observe 'anti- black money' day on November 8 -- apparently as a counter to the opposition's 'black day protest' over demonetisation -- he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should apologise to people for "hurting" them.

"What has been said about the economy is not true...It is wrong to say that the country's economic fundamentals are strong. The finance minister claiming that India's economy is the world's fastest growing is incorrect and factually wrong," Sharma told reporters.

"The government has no plan to put the economy back on track," he added.

Sharma said the government had now realised the "bad condition" of the economy and woken up to the situation by announcing a financial package.

His comments come a day after Jaitley announced a massive Rs 6.92 lakh crore package for infrastructure spending and another Rs 2.11 lakh crore for bank recapitalisation to revive investments as well as growth.

Jaitley had also cited economic indicators to support the government's contention that the economy is turning around.