Economy doing well despite external headwinds, Oppn criticism wrong: BJP

The Narendra Modi government is steering the economy in difficult times and comments by Opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal are incorrect, said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday.

“We have seen the crony socialist attitude of Rahul Gandhi; publicly abusing industrialists and hobnobbing with them behind the curtain, and Arvind Kejriwal who is corrupt to the core,” BJP national spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal said at a press conference in Delhi, referring to the leaders of the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party.

Agarwal accused Kejriwal’s government in Delhi of corruption in electricity subsidy, water utility Delhi Jal Board scam, liquor excise policy and in the purchase of electric buses.

Agarwal said the pandemic and war in Ukraine have pushed economic issues to the centre stage globally. Many countries are facing challenges and some of them had defaulted on their debt payments, but India is the fastest-growing large economy.

“India is now the 5th largest economy in terms of GDP and is poised to be the third largest economy in near future,” he said.

Agarwal cited statistics to prove that the economy is doing well despite global challenges: purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for services stood at 54.3 and for manufacturing at 55.1 in September, bank credit grew to a nine-year highest level of 15.5 per cent in August, direct tax collections rose by 24 per cent so far this year and GST collections crossed Rs 1.47 trillion in September.

“We have a strong and decisive leadership of prime minister Narendra Modi who has ensured a growing and resilient economy with the welfare of all sections of society,” he said.