Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday targeted the government over the state of the economy, claiming the country has entered into a recession for the first time in history due to the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“India has entered into recession for the first time in history. Mr Modi”s actions have turned India”s strength into its weakness,” he said on Twitter.
Gandhi cited a news report wherein the Reserve Bank of India has said that the country”s GDP is likely to contract by 8.6 per cent in the July-September quarter, which means the Indian economy is likely to enter into a technical recession for the first time in history.
The researchers have used the ‘nowcasting’ method to arrive at the estimates ahead of the official release of data. However, their findings do not constitute the central bank’s views.
The pandemic-induced lockdowns had led to a steep contraction of 23.9 per cent in the GDP for the April-June quarter as compared to the same period a year ago. The RBI has estimated that the economy will contract by 9.5 per cent for the full fiscal year.
Gandhi has been targeting the Centre over the handling of the coronavirus crisis, accusing it of not doing enough for the people of the country. He also criticised the lockdown imposed by the Modi government.
He had said on Wednesday that the central government needs to have a vaccine distribution strategy after US pharmaceutical major Pfizer announced promising results of its coronavirus vaccine. (PTI)
