'Who is Pappu now?': Mahua Moitra's dig at Centre over economy, Himachal poll
TMC's Mahua Moitra accused the Narendra Modi government of spreading "falsehood" about India's growth and appealed to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to take control of the economy.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Tuesday took a dig at the Centre over its handling of the economy and the BJP's Himachal Pradesh assembly election defeat asking “who is the ‘Pappu’ now?” Speaking during a debate in Lok Sabha on demands for additional grants for 2022-23, Moitra cited government data showing industrial contraction and said, "This government and the ruling party coined the term Pappu. You use it to denigrate and signify extreme incompetence. But the statistics tell us who the actual Pappu is."
The Trinamool Congress firebrand MP also accused the Narendra Modi government of spreading "falsehood" about India's growth and appealed to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to take control of the economy, which, according to the TMC leader, is going downhill.
Referring to the latest data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Moitra claimed that while the country's industrial output shrunk by four per cent in October to a 26-month low, the manufacturing sector, which is "still the biggest generator of jobs", contracted by 5.6 per cent.
"Seventeen of the industry sectors that make up the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) have recorded negative growth. Forex reserves have fallen by 72 billion dollars in under a year," she said.
The manufacturing sector's output declined by 5.6 per cent in October 2022 as against a growth of 3.3 per cent recorded in the year-ago month, according to the IIP data released by the NSO.
She also took a swipe at the BJP over its defeat in the just-concluded assembly election of Himachal Pradesh, the home state of BJP national president JP Nadda, saying he could not hold on to his home state. "Who is the Pappu now?" she asked.
On Monday, Sitharaman mentioned during the Question Hour how 50 per cent of Foreign Institutional Investors inflows into emerging markets are coming to India, but the government in reply to a question told the House last Friday that almost 2 lakh people renounced their Indian citizenship in the first 10 months of 2022, Moitra said.
"This exodus of 2022 takes the total number of Indians renouncing Indian citizenship under this government in the past nine years since 2014 to over 12.5 lakh people," she said.
"Is this sign of a healthy economic environment or a healthy tax environment (in the country)?" she asked, adding, "Who is the Pappu now?"
The TMC member alleged that there is an "atmosphere of terror" in the country with the "sword" of the Enforcement Directorate hanging over "businessmen and high-net-worth individuals" as well as leaders of opposition parties.
"The ruling party buys lawmakers for hundreds of crores of rupees and yet members of the opposition represent 95 per cent of the lawmakers under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate," Moitra alleged.
She accused the government of spreading falsehood over India's growth story under Prime Minister Modi and said the demonetisation of high-value currency enforced by it in 2016 had failed to achieve its targets as cash is "still king" and phasing out of fake currency is still a distant dream.
(With inputs from PTI)