While the Opposition welcomed senior BJP leader and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha’s attack on the Narendra Modi government over its handling of the economy, the Centre maintained that India was on a high-growth trajectory and that the economy was on a strong footing.

Sinha, in an Indian Express article titled “I Need to Speak up Now” had said that he would be “failing” in his “national duty” if he did not speak out against the “mess” the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had made of the economy.

“Warmly applauding” Sinha, his successor and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said the article spoke the truth about the economy. He also urged industrialists, and especially those who are knowledgeable about the economy, to speak and write without fear.

He said Sinha was “spot on” when he said that the Centre got an unprecedented oil bonanza that was wasted, that private investment had shrunk like never before in two decades, that industrial production had all but collapsed, that exports had dwindled, that demonetisation had proved an unmitigated disaster, that a badly conceived and poorly implemented GST had played havoc with businesses and sunk many of them, that countless millions have lost their jobs and that the growth rate of 5.7 per cent is actually 3.7 or less. Chidambaram added that regular jobs cannot be provided to unemployed youth unless economy grows beyond eight per cent.

The Congress leader, however, said the Centre was collectively responsible for the mess and added that the Prime Minister must bear the responsibility for the failures of his government.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh, however, downplayed Sinha’s criticism. “The whole world admits that India is the fastest growing economy in the world. No one should forget this fact. In the matter of economy, in the international arena, India’s credibility has been established,” he told reporters.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said some of the landmark reforms the Centre has brought in were unprecedented. “Something like GST was never imagined to be possible in a country of the size and scale of India,” he said.

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