Questioning NDA government’s claims of economic recovery since it came to power, senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha has said that growth is up “only statistically” and there are serious issues which still need to be addressed.
“We have recovered from the slowdown, at least statistically, if not really, because we have changed the norms,” Sinha, a former Union Finance Minister, said at an industry meet here late last evening.
He said there is a need for debate on this and there should be comparable figures of economic growth from the previous years which can validate the claims of recovery.
“It cannot be that you prepare one year’s figures and say that now you’re doing 7.4 percent or 8 percent or 20 percent,” said Sinha, whose son Jayant serves as a Minister of State for Finance in the Narendra Modi government.
“What are the new norms (of computation)? Even the Chief Economic Advisor of the Government of India does not understand this.
And we’ve put the same culprits (who initiated the change) to sit in judgement over this change,” Sinha remarked.
There are “serious issues” in the economy which need to be addressed and the government can never say that it has tackled all the pressing concerns, he added.
