‘Impatient India keen to break 8% growth barrier’
NEWDELHI:FINANCE minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday made a poll pitch by projecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “decisive” leader who sustained high average growth without stoking inflation, and criticised the Opposition’s bid to form an “unworkable” alliance with a “maverick” leadership.
He said India is the fastestgrowing “major” economy in the world. “Still we are not satisfied with a 7 to 7.5% growth rate. We are increasingly becoming impatient and want to break the 8% barrier,” Jaitley wrote in his blog.
“Who should be India’s prime minister, if India were to achieve this? Should he/she be constrained by his/her rival aspirants who have reluctantly supported him/her out of mere dislike for a common opponent or does India need a prime minister with a clear mandate as in 2014? Only such a prime minister can deliver growth and satisfy the nation’s aspirations,” he said, referring to efforts of the opposition parties to form a “mahagathbandhan”, or grand alliance, to defeat Modi in the 2019 general election.
Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh, however, said the Modi government was “single handedly responsible for destroying, damaging and demolishing” the economy. “There is no doubt about the fact that the twin assaults on the economy — demonetisation and a flawed GST [Goods and Services Tax] — finished jobs and completely decimated the unorganised sector,” he said. “There are no jobs. Farmers are extremely distressed. Rural sector is anguished...the countdown for Modi government’s exit has begun, even though it is trying to clutch at straws by announcing one jumla, after another,” he said.