New Delhi, 04 June— Unable to accept the staring economic reality of the country, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today slammed Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s warning of an impending ‘economic tsunami’ as the saffron party labelled his claim a “classic fear-mongering.”
“From one side, a massive economic tsunami is coming, prices are rising and this is just the beginning. India will witness such an economic crisis that you have never ever witnessed in your lives. This is happening and no one can stop this. On the other hand, there is an institutional revolt happening within India’s system … the Election Commission (EC) is fully controlled,” Rahul Gandhi observed yesterday addressing tribal leaders from across the country at an event organised by the Adivasi Congress at the Indira Bhawan in New Delhi.
Panicking head of the BJP’s national IT cell Amit Malviya rushed to provide key facts to highlight that India is “not defenceless,” despite facing an “external shock” in a lengthy post on the X.
What indeed hurt the BJP most was Rahul Gandhi’s claime that Narendra Modi will not remain the Prime Minister in a year’s time as the “system that he once controlled is now shaken and collapsing internally,” agencies reported.
“In my assessment, Modi ji will not be the prime minister in a year’s time,” he had said.
Malviya incoherently presented not so convincing data which has been manipulated overtime saying that Rahul Gandh’s claim that “India is heading towards an ‘economic tsunami’ because the Government has removed all shock absorbers is not just wrong, it is classic fear-mongering. If India’s shock absorbers had truly been removed, why is the economy continuing to show resilience despite elevated crude prices, conflict in West Asia, supply-chain disruptions, global financial tightening and persistent geopolitical uncertainty? The reality is exactly the opposite. India is facing an external shock, but India is not defenceless. The shock absorbers have not been removed. They have been built over the last decade,” Malviya wrote.
Malviya chose to present data which is manipulated and doctored to mislead the nation as he talked of electricity consumption growing while totally overlooking the ground reality that power generation is falling and power outages are growing while the weak and the poor are suffering the most.
Malviya went on to say that these were “not signs of an economy without shock absorbers” and rather “signs of resilience.”
“The Government has also taken direct measures to protect citizens, businesses and jobs…. Airlines facing fuel-price volatility can receive assistance of up to ₹1,500 crore per borrower. The objective is clear: protect jobs, sustain supply chains and ensure uninterrupted production,” he wrote.
He even highlighted that the Union Cabinet has approved ₹37,500 crore for surface coal and lignite gasification, targeting 75 million tonnes of gasification capacity and expected to mobilise investments worth ₹2.5–3 lakh crore.
Malviya’s claim that the Modi government has not dismantled shock absorbers falls flat as the RBI coffers are empty as the government has been drawing its reserves meant for the crisis times have already been overdrawn.
The IT cell chief, main propogandist of the ruling party, instead of talking rising unemployment and inflation chose to attack the Congress-led UPA government. Between 2011 and 2013, the rupee plunged by 36 per cent. Forex reserves declined from around $294 billion in July 2011 to approximately $256 billion in August 2013. Import cover fell to just over six months by September 2013, down sharply from 17 months in March 2004,” Malviya noted.
He added, “Inflation averaged 8.2 per cent during FY04–FY14 and remained in double digits for much of FY10–FY14. Public sector bank stress, including restructured assets, climbed to 12.3 per cent by September 2013. The fiscal deficit remained at or above 4.5 per cent of GDP for six consecutive years from FY09 to FY14… That was the real removal of shock absorbers. Congress weakened India before the shock arrived.”
Malviya said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at Centre has “strengthened India before, during and after repeated shocks, Covid, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, crude spikes, global rate hikes, supply-chain disruptions and now instability in West Asia.”
“Despite facing multiple black swan events, India has remained the world’
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