In an extraordinary show of political wisdom, economic understanding and general awareness, Congress sniffed foul play in Moody’s upgradation of India’s rating from Baa3 to Baa2. Congress “blamed PM Modi” for buying Moody’s so that they give better credit ratings to India. Yeah, you read that right.
The fact that Moody’s is not some second-rate shoddy rating shop but is one of the three largest ratings agencies in the world doesn’t matter to congress, because their Vipaksh Dharma says criticize everything even if you end up making a total donkey of yourself. Though the reputation of rating agencies (every and all) took a beating after the 2007 sub-prime crisis, Moody’s is still one of the most respected rating agencies in the world. Rating agency Moody’s had to come up with the detailed ranking mechanism and reasoning about how they upgraded India’s rating to shut the mouths of leaders of Congress. Though another rating agency S&P held the current rating, they made extensive positive comments about India’s economic growth in the next two years and it is expected that they will also upgrade rating.
It is not just a one-off incident, congress has previously even targeted World Bank and IMF for giving favorable outlook on India. Congress selectively chooses to target institutions that pass favorable comments about India. Sometimes back it was World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking, Currently it is India’s Ratings Upgrade by Moody’s.
Being a responsible opposition (if at all, they think they are), they have every right to fight on issues like poverty, corruption, education, jobs etc., but are doing a shoddy job at it. Congress never questioned BJP where it could have cornered it. BJP could have been hauled over coals after demonetisation and GST but Opposition’s anarchist gimmicks and his own larger-than-life image enabled PM Modi to sail through. Congress could have asked why illegal Bangladeshi immigrants still here in India? Or about Maoists? Or why there is no urgency to implement Universal Civil code. They would have got people support on these too. But it’s congress we are talking about, the party that fights for votes, not the nation. These issues are non-issues for the congress Party. However, when a reputed global body entity says something nice about our country, congress leaps headfirst and hurls accusations not just on the BJP but on the body itself.
Notice the differences between UPA rule and NDA rule? During their rule from 2009-2014, Congress never failed to hit headlines with monumental scams, beating their own records every single time. Commonwealth was bigger than Adarsh, 2G was bigger than Commonwealth and Coalgate was the biggest of them all. Fortunately for India and unfortunately for Congress, there hasn’t been a single scam during the last three and half years of NDA/BJP rule. In the absence of any real issues Congress has been trying to convince people that Demonetization was a dud or GST is mayhem, but, they failed to recognize the simple fact that those are policies and not scams.
Congress – A Party that has 3 acclaimed economists – P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, and the world-famous Dr. Manmohan Singh, statements such as “World Bank is a fake and Moody’s is rigged” doesn’t just sound ridiculous but also desperate. They need to understand that they are strengthening PM Modi with nuggets of wisdom like these.
Currently, they are trying to fight with whatever rocks and branches they got, like early men. When you are going down fast, you try to hold on to something or anything, no matter how insignificant it is, in a hope that it will stop your fall. Probably, congress is doing just that, but this is not going to help, especially when Rahul Gandhi is all set to take over the party. Also, sometimes a naïve and often dissociated political observer like me is compelled to think – Is it BJP they are against or are they against their own country?