Congress leader Deepender Singh Hooda said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been travelling extensively but he is not marketing 'Purchase from India.'
As stock markets witnessed a deep plunge, Congress today claimed that the country is staring at a "full-blown economic crisis" and wondered whether India's growth numbers projecting it as the fastest growing economy in the world were "credible."
"The BJP government may be projecting India as the fastest growing economy but the world is doubting the numbers," party spokesman Deepender Singh Hooda told reporters.
Mr Hooda quoted from a newsletter of Nevsky Capital to its client telling them that Chinese real GDP growth is 7.1 per cent and India's is 7.4 per cent are "substantially overstated." to drive his point. The investment company has wound up its operations in India, he said.
Posing the question as to what the government is doing to bring exports back on track after 13 months of decline, he said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been travelling extensively but he is not marketing 'Purchase from India.' That would automatically boost manufacturing and exports, Mr Hooda added.
"The irony is that the more the Prime Minister travels, the more the decline in exports", he said taking a dig at PM Modi.
Noting that 20 of the 60 months of the government's term are over, he said that at the end of BJP's 1/3rd term in office, "the nation is looking at a full-blown economic crisis and every day we get more data that indicates that we are struggling to find the bottom of bad news."
Expressing concern over decline in demand and consumption, he said falling demand spells trouble for the overall economy. The situation has been worsened due to "very little growth" in private investments.
Recalling PM Modi's words as opposition leader that Rupee was on a "ventilator" when it reached the level of 58 Rupees to a US dollar, Mr Hooda wondered as to what the Prime Minister would say now when it has reached Rs 68 per dollar.
Stating that the Sensex was trading at 24,061 on January 20, 2016, he said that on May 16, 2014, the sensex was at 24,121.
"The government needs to tell the nation why the Sensex has completed a round trip in 20 months," the Congress spokesman said.
"Estimates suggest that Rs 4.5 lakh crore of investor wealth has been wiped out in the month of January so far. Savings of middle class families and retirement funds of our professionals have taken a serious hit and if things continue, we are headed for serious trouble," he said.
Crude oil prices are at historic lows but the benefits of this is not being passed on to the consumer, Mr Hooda said attacking the government.