A day after the Centre dismissed former prime minister Manmohan Singh's views over its handling of the economy, BJP ally Shiv Sena on Wednesday backed the former PM and hit out against the Narendra Modi-led government. Asking the Centre to pay heed to the eminent economist's warning owing to national interest, Shiv Sena urged the government not to indulge in politics over the issue.
“National interest lies in listening to Manmohan Singh's advice. There should be no politics around the economic slowdown. Kashmir and economic slowdown are two different issues,” Shiv Sena said in its editorial mouthpiece Saamana. “Dr Manmohan Singh spoke about the economic slowdown and the difficult times that lie ahead in the future. One has to trust Manmohan Singh when he says that the economy is in doldrums and will collapse in future.”
In more embarassment to the Modi government, the editorial also claimed that the economy has been destroyed in the last few years.
On Sunday, two days after it was revealed that India's GDP growth touched a six-year low of 5 per cent, Manmohan Singh had blamed the “all-round mismanagement by the Modi government” for the slowdown. Warning that India was in midst of "a prolonged slowdown", the former finance minister said that "our economy has not yet recovered from the man-made blunders of demonetisation and a hastily implemented GST”.
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Following this, the government went on a defensive and rebuffed Manmohan Singh's criticism over handling of the economy, saying it does not subscribe to his analysis as India has now become the world's fifth largest economy from 11th during his time. Hitting back at the former prime minister, BJP said India could not achieve the desired growth under him as he was used as a "puppet" by some to promote corruption and nepotism, while Modi's economic policy has propelled the country among the top world economies.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told a press conference that Indian economy is doing "quite well" despite a global slowdown, adding that the Modi government in its six years has laid a "formal foundation" with measures like the GST and tax reforms.