Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has taken a dig at the Narendra Modi government over poor macroeconomic indicators, like inflation, job losses, and gross domestic product (GDP).
In a tweet on Wednesday, Gandhi said the morale of the people is breaking and asked, "Is this development or devastation?"
"Banks and GDP are in trouble. Inflation and joblessness have never been so high. Morale of the people is breaking and social justice is getting trampled. Is this development or devastation?", Gandhi said in the tweet.
India's GDP has plummeted in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Between April and June of this year, India's GDP contracted by 23.9 percent due to the national lockdown imposed in the country at the end of March. In the preceding trimester, the Indian economy witnessed economic growth of 3.1 percent.
Global agencies have predicted negative growth in the Indian economy.
The World Bank has forecast a contraction of 9.6% in the current financial year (April 2020 – March 2021). Goldman Sachs said India's economy would shrink by 10.3 percent, while India Ratings maintained that the economy would contract 11.80 percent.
Referring to the imposition of a moratorium on the Laxmi Vilas Bank on Tuesday by the country's apex bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Gandhi mentioned trouble in the banking sector.
The RBI has put the bank under a moratorium and imposed limits on withdrawals owing to financial irregularities faced by the lender.
On the inflation front, the Indian government said last week that the country's retail inflation in October had jumped to its highest since Prime Minister Modi took over in 2014. Retail inflation for October, a key indicator for policy-making, was 7.61 percent, according to the data released by the Indian Ministry of Statistics.
