New Delhi: Former Finance Minister of India and Trinamool Congress leader Yashwant Sinha has challenged the Modi government with data on India's declining economy, unemployment, inflation and rising petroleum prices.
Addressing the media in Delhi Saturday, Yashwant Sinha, presenting the analysis of the seven-year tenure of the government with statistics, said that the government has failed on all these issues.
The growth rate (in dollars) of the Indian economy was 6.39 percent in the year 2013 before the tenure of the Modi government and after that it was in an ever increasing order. By 2016 it rose to 8.26 percent but after that it registered a steady decline and in 2019 it reached 4.04 percent. In 2020, the year of the pandemic, it reached 7.96 percent.
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According to Yashwant Sinha, the main reason for this is the decision of demonetisation by the Modi government in 2016, which was a completely wrong step. He said that today, after five years, it has become clear that this step of the government was a complete failure and it did not serve any purpose.
Speaking on inflation, Yashwant Sinha said that the inflation rate in 2013 was 11.06 percent which was also the main reason for the then UPA government's defeat in 2014. It came down to 6.65 percent in 2014, 4.91 percent in 2015, 4.95 percent in 2016 and further down to 3.33 percent in 2017. In 2018 and 2019, the inflation rate stood at 3.95 percent and 3.72 percent respectively, but in the year 2020, it rose to 6.62 percent unexpectedly.
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On unemployment too, the Trinamool vice-president put forth the figures before and after the Modi government. According to his figures, the unemployment rate in 2013 was 5.67 percent, but during the tenure of the Modi government, it remained consistently above 5 percent and in 2020 it rose to 7.11 percent.
On the ever-increasing prices of petroleum, Yashwant Sinha said that the prices of crude oil have come down in the international market but diesel and petrol has only become costlier in the country. Petrol prices have increased 76 times while diesel prices increased 73 times in the financial year 2020-21.
Earlier, the government used to collect Rs 75,000 crore through taxes on diesel, petrol and cooking gas, but today it is being increased to Rs 3.36 lakh crore.
