In another tweet, Rahul Gandhi also said that there was no hope of job creation and safe future for the country's young generation anytime soon. (Express photo/Amit Mehra)

Taking a swipe at the Centre, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Saturday said its “well planned fight” against the contagious virus has put India in an “abyss” of GDP reduction of 24 per cent, 12 crore job losses, 15.5 lakh crore additional stressed loans and world’s highest daily Covid cases and deaths.

Taking to Twitter, Gandhi wrote: “Modi Govt’s ‘well-planned fight’ against Covid has put India in an abyss of: 1. Historic GDP reduction of 24% 2. 12 crore jobs lost 3. 15.5 lac crores additional stressed loans 4. Globally highest daily Covid cases & deaths. But for the government of India and the media “sab changa si (all is well).”

Modi Govt’s ‘well-planned fight’ against Covid has put India in an abyss of:

1. Historic GDP reduction of 24%
2. 12 crore jobs lost
3. 15.5 lac crores additional stressed loans
4. Globally highest daily Covid cases & deaths.

But for GOI & media ‘sab changa si’.

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 12, 2020

In another tweet, Gandhi also said that there was no hope of job creation and safe future for the country’s young generation anytime soon. Tagging a report quoting Unilever global chief executive Alan Jope as saying that the surge in COVID-19 cases is a worrying trend in India, Gandhi said, “One of India’s biggest employers is in ‘wait and see’ mode since Covid cases are rising. So, no hope of job creation & safe future for youth anytime soon. Yet another outcome of Modi Govt’s sudden & unplanned lockdown which has snowballed India’s already-precarious economy,” he said.

According to Health Ministry data, India’s Covid caseload has breached the 46-lakh mark, while 36,24,196 people have recovered so far taking the national recovery rate to 77.77 per cent on Saturday.

Owing to a strict nationwide lockdown due to the pandemic during most of the first quarter of the financial year 2020-21, the country’s GDP for the April-June quarter (Q1) slipped by a sharp 23.9 per cent, as per provisional estimates released by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on August 31. This has already brought into sharp focus the rising levels of unemployment. The lockdowns are likely to result in the country’s economy contracting by over 10% in the full financial year, resulting in more and more people losing jobs, apart from fewer new entrants finding work.

Soon after the GDP figures were released, Gandhi had listed out six issues in his tweet –––  “1. Historic GDP reduction -23.9% 2. Highest Unemployment in 45 yrs 3. 12 Crs job loss 4. Centre not paying States their GST dues 5. Globally highest COVID-19 daily cases and deaths 6. External aggression at our borders”, and termed them “Modi-made disasters“.