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Cong mounts attack on PM Modi over economy
Kharge listed out three parameters— increasing household liabilities, failure of Make in India to push exports, and reduced fund allocations under MGNREGA— to counter the PM’s assertion.
The Congress on Sunday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the state of economy, with party president Mallikarjun Kharge saying his “stale lectures” repeating the same old spins cannot gloss over his “outright failures” affecting every aspect of the country’s economy.
The remarks came days after PM Modi, while addressing the third edition of Kautilya Economic Conclave on October 4, said the Indian economy was undergoing transformational change to sustain high growth.
Kharge listed out three parameters— increasing household liabilities, failure of Make in India to push exports, and reduced fund allocations under MGNREGA— to counter the PM’s assertion.
“Household Liabilities/Indebtedness has grown by a whopping 241% from 2013-14 to 2022-23 in actual terms. Household debt as a percentage of GDP is at an all-time high of 40%. Household Savings is at a 50-year low. Since pandemic, consumption of Indian families is more than their income,” Kharge wrote in a long post on X.
He added that the cost of home-cooked Veg thali increased by 11% in September 2024 compared to last year. “BJP imposed Price Rise & Destruction of Unorganised Sector is responsible for this mess!” he said.
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The Congress chief maintained that in 10 years, “Make in India” has “spectacularly failed” as the gains of India’s rising exports during Congress-UPA have been discarded by the BJP’s policies.
Kharge also shared comparative data of India’s export during the UPA era and the BJP-led NDA era. As per the data, the country’s export growth was 187% during 2004 to 2009 and 94.39% during 2009 to 2014, while the same was 21% during Modi’s first term as PM from 2014 to 2019 and 56.8% from 2019 to 2023.
“No wonder, the average growth rate of the Manufacturing Sector between 2014-15 and 2023-24 is just 3.1% (BJP-NDA) whereas between 2004-05 and 2013-14, the average growth rate was 7.85% (Congress-UPA). This disastrous policy has reduced the share of workers employed in Manufacturing to 11.4% (2023-24) from 15.85% (2017-18),” Kharge said.
“In your propaganda to corner the Congress party on MGNREGA, you have deliberately failed to allocate more funds to this demand driven scheme. Your Govt has artificially reduced demand by delaying wages and not funding Opposition ruled states on time,” he said, arguing that the demand for work under MGNREGA has decreased to just 160 million in August 2024, the lowest monthly demand since October 2022.
“Narendra Modi ji, your stale lectures repeating the same old spins cannot gloss over your outright failures affecting every aspect of India’s economy!” Kharge said. “‘Modinomics’ is a curse to India’s economy!”
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that “new evidence” has shown that at least three dark clouds still loom over the Indian economy.
He underlined that new project announcements by the private sector fell by 21% between FY23 and FY24, which reflects a lack of investor confidence in India’s consumer markets. Arguing that India’s manufacturing is stagnating, the Rajya Sabha member said: “As share of GDP, manufacturing is the same as it was ten years ago. As a share of total employment, manufacturing has marginally declined. India’s share in global merchandise exports has also largely stagnated, and exports are falling as a share of India’s GDP. In fact, growth in India’s share of global exports grew much faster in the 2005-15.”
Ramesh further said that the latest Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) for 2022-2023 has revealed a decline in real wages and productivity for India’s labourers.
