PM Modi has miserably failed to convince the people about the downslide in the economy as raised by his own party’s senior leader and former Finance minister Yashwant Sinha , said Delhi Deputy Chief Minister.

ABDUL BARI MASOUD | Caravan Daily

NEW DELHI — The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi misled the country in his speech on the economy while quoting facts and figures without any context, and not explaining the reasons for the sliding GDP growth and employment figures.

The AAP described PM Modi’s speech as loaded “with more jumlas than facts”. The party was referring to the PM Modi’s address to a gathering of Company Secretaries on Wednesday where he talked about the country’s economy.

Addressing a press conference here, senior leader and Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia along with national spokesperson Ashutosh said the prime minister’s speech had no mention of what his government has achieved over the last three years in the fields of education and healthcare. Sisodia said PM Modi has miserably failed to convince the people about the downslide in the economy as raised by his own party’s senior leader and former Finance minister Yashwant Sinha.

According to Sisodia, the prime minister is lying to the people about the real state of the economy, who said that the GDP had only fallen for one quarter, whereas the fact is that the GDP has now been in a free-fall for the last six quarters starting Jan-March 2016, when it was at 9.1 per cent.

“The GDP growth rate has fallen drastically to 5.7 per cent in April-May-June. If the PM believes this is a nominal loss, he’s clearly misleading the people. Even one point drop in the GDP results in a reduction of national income by Rs 1.5 lakh crore and lakhs of jobs,” the AAP leader said.

Also read : Modi’s Speech Melodramatic Theatrics: Congress

The PM defended his performance by claiming the UPA government too had seen such poor figures, but the fact is that the UPA, despite having mismanaged the economy had maintained the GDP growth rate at 6.1% over the last two-quarters of their term.

“Most shockingly, the PM made no mention of employment generation in his speech. The Labour Department of the Modi government has already pronounced that the government has been a failure on the front of employment. After promising to generate one crore jobs every year, in 2014-15 the number was at 1.5 lakh and in 2015-16, it was 2.3 lakh. The fact that PM Modi made no mention of the state of employment in the country is an admission of the government’s failure,” he added.

Sisodia, further, said that in times of uncertainty and slowdown, the country needs strong leadership that not only identifies the problems but also accepts its own faults, so as to make the necessary course corrections but the PM showed no such signs during his speech. “PM did not explain why fuel prices have been hiked to such levels when crude oil prices are so low. He didn’t explain why foreign investment in India has hit rock bottom. The PM’s speech has exposed his limited understanding of what makes the country progress as his government did not take any steps to strengthen healthcare and education,” AAP leader said.

Sisodia attacking the BJP government added, “In the last three years, the government has spent only one per cent of the GDP on healthcare, at a time when the international average is 6 per cent. Delhi state, in comparison, spends 12 per cent of its budget on healthcare. On education, it spends 3.7 per cent, down from 4.6 per cent in 2013-14 of the GDP, while the Delhi government spends 23 per cent of its state budget on education.”

AAP spokesperson Ashutosh said the BJP’s economic model is centered on building roads but the AAP wants to build the nation through education and healthcare.