Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and finance minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Cabinet, Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday criticised Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for the current state of the Indian economy.
Sinha, in a lacerating opinion published in the Indian Express, said despite low global oil prices, Jaitley had failed to use the advantage at his disposal to revive the economy.
"Jaitley was, to begin with, a lucky finance minister, luckier than any in the post-liberalisation era. Depressed global crude oil prices placed at his disposal lakhs of crores of rupees. This unprecedented bonanza was waiting to be used imaginatively. But the oil bonanza has been wasted and the legacy problems have not only been allowed to persist, they have become worse," Sinha wrote in his column.
The former minister expressed his concerns saying: "I shall be failing in my national duty if I did not speak up even now against the mess the finance minister has made of the economy."
Sinha pointed out that after three years Jaitley became finance minister, private investment "has shrunk as never before in two decades, industrial production has all but collapsed, agriculture is in distress, construction industry, a big employer of the work force, is in the doldrums, the rest of the service sector is also in the slow lane, exports have dwindled, sector after sector of the economy is in distress, demonetisation has proved to be an unmitigated economic disaster, a badly conceived and poorly implemented GST has played havoc with businesses and sunk many of them and countless millions have lost their jobs."
He added: "For quarter after quarter, the growth rate of the economy has been declining until it reached the low of 5.7 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal, the lowest in three years."
Sinha also explained that the methodology for calculation of the GDP was changed by the present government in 2015. "...So, according to the old method of calculation, the growth rate of 5.7 percent is actually 3.7 percent or less," the BJP veteran said.
The former minister criticised the government for the ongoing farm crisis in the country. "The performance of the monsoon this year has not been flattering. This will further intensify rural distress," Sinha opined. "The farmers have received 'massive' loan waivers from some state governments varying from one paise to a few rupees in some cases," he added.
He also said the revival of the economic situation appears highly unlikely before the next Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
Sinha concluded: "The prime minister claims that he has seen poverty from close quarters. His finance minister is working over-time to make sure that all Indians also see it from equally close quarters."
