Modi govt in panic from return of 1990-91 crisis: Rahul

Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said India is facing a catastrophic failure of 1990-91 that calls for an immediate new approach, but Prime Minister Modi is in panic he is unable to fulfil so many promises in the given situation. He said a person in panic cannot respond to the situation deteriorating fast.

He told a Press meeting the government is living on the fuel prices, but everything will go out of control if the international crude oil prices shoot up from $70 to $100 a barrel. The new approach requires dialogue with all sections of society — farmers, labour unions, economists and industrialists to get a new vision for the country.

Rahul said the PM should talk to not only the government’s think tank, the NITI Aayog, but also experts. He even offered to send the Congress experts to the government to stave over the looming crisis. “We have experience to handle such crisis as we did in 1990-91, but that economic strategy worked only till 2012. Without new direction and change of vision, India can’t come out of the structural problem.”

He said PM Modi promised a new approach when he came to power in 2014, but his vision of a “new India” proved to be “khokhla” (hollow) nor did his “Make in India” give any results. All that he is doing is to transfer the wealth from the poor to his select friends, Rahul said.

In reply to a question, he said the stock market booming fast shows symptoms of the structural failure as the shares of only 40-50 companies are rising while over 300 companies who could be the future of the country are fast sinking. The rise of a handful of 5-6-7 industrialists in the stock market is meaningless since they can’t give employment in large numbers.

Rahul drifted away to discuss the state of economy, though he originally focused on telling the people that they must ask the government where have Rs 23 lakh crore earned from the “GDP” have vanished. He didn’t mean the Gross Domestic Product that is falling but “gas, diesel and petrol” which is Modi’s GDP over all seven years of his rule. “Perhaps Modi’s confusion that GDP means gas, diesel and petrol when he claims it is rising,” Rahul said.