Congress' 'gang' remained mute spectators to economic destruction: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Sunday lashed out at the UPA government, saying that the Congress’ "gang" of incompetent people remained mute spectators to the economic destruction of the country.

“Everyone in govt during Cong/UPA #LostDecade from Chidambaram down to "CEA" Basu to "Gov" Rajan live in hope that people have forgotten and Indians have developed collective amnesia. This gang were inept/incompetent at best or at worst mute/active spectators to cronyism, corruption and economic destruction unprecedented in the history of India,” the former Union Minister wrote to X while responding to the allegations of the ‘skewflation’ by Kaushik Basu, who was Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) during the UPA government.

“He wont respond @dravirmani. UPA relics like @kaushikcbasu spew some gobblyduk like "skewflation" and scoot,” the former Rajeev Chandrasekhar wrote while attacking the UPA government.

Earlier, Kaushik Basu said that the kind of inflation, India faces now is ‘skewflation’.

“This can’t be cured with monetary policy alone. It needs sector-specific interventions. The Budget is going to be critical. The trouble is to solve a problem we need to admit there’s one. But do we have the courage to do so?” Basu wrote on X.

Responding to Basu, Arvind Virmani, a Niti Ayog member, said that it would be greatly appreciated if a comparative analysis of current inflation with the inflation during your tenure as CEA (2010-2012) and the next year, to capture lags.

Attacking the UPA government further over its economic failure, former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that even an economic novice will acknowledge the transformation and strength of our economy from the lows of 2013/2014 and BJP’s resilience and growth post-Covid as a result.

“Even a novice but not these overbadged "economist" hangovers from Cong past,” the former minister said.

India is the fastest-growing economy in the world as the economic growth rate in the financial year 2023-24 has been 8.2 per cent.

It is expected to grow at the rate of 7.2 per cent in the current financial year. At the same time, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) estimates that the inflation rate may average 4.5 per cent in the financial year 2024-25.