‘Ruining’ of economy began with demonetisation: Rahul Gandhi

The Congress on Tuesday attacked the Centre over the GDP slump, with former party chief Rahul Gandhi alleging that the “ruining” of the economy began with demonetisation and the government thereafter introduced one “erroneous” policy after another.

The country’s economy suffered its worst slump on record in April-June, with the gross domestic product (GDP) contracting by 23.9% as the coronavirus-related lockdown weighed on the already declining consumer demand and investment.

“GDP -23.9. The ruining of the country’s economy began with demonetisation. Since then, the government introduced one erroneous policy after another,” Mr. Gandhi said in a tweet.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also alleged that the government was responsible for the slump in the economy.

Rahul Gandhi had spoken of an “economic tsunami” six months ago, while the government announced a package just for “show” and look at the condition now, Ms. Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.

The BJP government has caused the slump in the economy, she alleged.

Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in a tweet in Hindi, “Modi ji, at least now accept that what you hailed as masterstrokes were actually ‘disaster strokes’ -- demonetisation, faulty GST and lockdown.”

The GDP contraction is the sharpest contraction since quarterly figures started being published in 1996 and worse than what was expected by most analysts.

Chief Economic Adviser K V Subramanian, however, has said the economy is “experiencing a V-shaped recovery” after the lockdown eased.