Economic Survey a ‘self-serving cheerful assessment’ of India’s economy: Congress

The Union Budget’s thrust should be to stimulate the “ailing economy, revive sectors, boost consumption, encourage investment and create jobs” but the Economic Survey does not see any of these as a problem, the Opposition party said.

“The Economic Survey repeats ad nauseum that at the end of 2021-22 the Economy would have recovered to the pre-pandemic level (2019-20),” said former finance minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram. He was referring to the assessment that India’s GDP is projected to grow 8 to 8.5 per cent in the next fiscal. “This is a time for contrition and change (of approach), not for boasts…” he added, referring to the effects of the pandemic.

Congress’s Randeep Surjewala too said in a series of tweets that: “Self-serving cheerful assessment of economy raises doubts about what the Budget is set out to achieve…” It is a classic case of “what statistics say” versus “what they actually reveal”. It clearly reveals the “gross economic mismanagement by the Modi government, he added.