PM Modi was on the stage of the golden jubilee celebration of ICSI today, and he used the opportunity to seal the mouth of the naysayers who have been busy attacking the government over the issue of slowdown in economy. This was PM Modi’s firs Response to the falling economy.
PM Modi came fully prepared. PM showcased a number of schemes and quoted developmental figures to explain how very many positive things are happening in the country. He accused the Opposition of being partially blind for not seeing how the country is moving forward. The PM also spoke about GST and the ban on 500 and 1000 Rs Notes. Modi said that the people will remember the day of demonetisation (8 November) as the day of the biggest crusade against corruption in history.
The Mahabharata Analogy
Senior BJP leader and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha had attacked his own BJP and held Demonetisation as the biggest reason behind the ailing economy. Yashwant Sinha had said that the GDP is below 5.7 per cents and that Finance Minister has destroyed the economy. The normally clueless opposition wasted no time in attacking the government’s policies by latching on to Sinha’s jibes. PM Modi didn’t just reject the allegations of a slump in the economy, but also cornered the opposition with examples from the Mahabharata. PM Modi quoted examples of Shalya. PM Modi said that some people are spreading negativity like Shalya. Shalya was pivotal in bringing down Karna while charioting him. Shalya used to demean Karna and constantly called him an inferior warrior as compared to Arjuna and Karna would get increasingly frustrated with his jibes. PM Modi said, ” A handful of people in this country are littering (a reference to the verbal diarrhoea) in the country. For them, the government is already running a cleanliness drive from day one. PM said thathe constituted a SIT against black money on the very first day. He said that the rules were tightened, pacts were made with other countries. Anonymous Property Law was enforced. GST was implemented. Rules for NGO Funding were revamped. The government also showed exemplary courage with the note ban decision. PM said that he worked hard to keep institutional integrity strong.
‘People were spreading negativity just like Shalya at the time of Doklam crisis as well, but their jaws hit the floor when the crisis was resolved without firing a single bullet. He said that earnings of a special tribe of people has diminished and will further diminish and that’s the reason behind their frustration.
The Numbers
PM Modi responded to the critics of the government by presenting figures from different sector. The PM asked, ‘Has the GDP growth in the country touched 5.7 for the first time? In the previous government, there were 8 such occasions for 6 long years when the growth rates dropped to 5.7% or less. The country’s economy has seen even seen fiscal quarters where the growth rate dropped to 1.5 percent, 0.2 percent. He mentioned such massive declines are very dangerous for the economy because in those years India’s inflation, current account deficit, fiscal deficit was very high.
Comparison with UPA
PM Modi challenged the Critics to Compare NDA’s 3 years with 3 years of the previous government. PM Modi responded to opponents by comparing their government’s 3-year performance to the last 3 years of UPA 2. PM Modi said that ‘2012-13 and 2013-14, the average increase was around 6 per cent while NDA government has seen an increase of 7.9 per cents. When the economy was booming then the critics propagated that there is a ‘scam’ in the methods of GDP calculation. PM Modi said that he is not an economist and has never claimed to be one. But he was bound to take the people into the flashback mode because all of a sudden everyone is so interested in understanding the economics of the nation.
PM Modi asked his critics to remember the times when India was a member of Fragile 5 Group. It was not an elite group like G-7, G-8 G-20, but a group of countries whose economy was so worrisome that it was also dangerous for the world’s economy. PM Modi asked, ” How did this happen when economists of international repute (A reference to Manmohan Singh) were in power at that time? “
The PM then highlighted the increase in Public Confidence and Purchasing power. He said “People used to buy a car only after making sure that their basic necessities were covered. The sale of passenger cars has increased by 12 percent after the month of June, the sale of commercial vehicles by 23 per cent, two-wheeler by 14 per cent, tractors by 34 percent, domestic air traffic by 14 per cent, air freight by 16 per cents.” Are these signs of a Failing economy?”
PM Modi further added that the production of coal, electricity and natural gas has increased. Personal loan, housing loan, mutual fund have increased. Financing is no longer restricted to banks ‘ loans. The PM said that the government has given relief to the middle class of the first time in order to make the house a house. The government is constantly making efforts to make the lower middle class an opportunity and empower the poor. The emphasis is on making the common man strong. I can not bet the future of the country in my current concern. In addition to the private sector and the public sector, the emphasis is on the personal sector. The government is giving all help to such youth that want to do something on their own. ‘ PM counted schemes like Money Planning, Stand Up India and Start Up India as success.
This was certainly the knockout punch that the opposition needed and a clarification that the people of this country required. Hopefully the budding social media economists will cut down on the noise part and focus on meaningful information exchange.
All Quotes, Numbers and claims Sourced from PM Modi’s Speech Video. Here’s the Full Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDjfqpDTA9Q
