'Einstein discovered gravity'; why should Nirmala have all the fun?

New Delhi: After Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's insistence that millennials are the reason behind the crisis in the auto sector, her colleague Piyush Goyal made an embarrassing gaffe while defending the government's $5 trillion-economy dream.

At a meeting for the Board of Trade, Commerce and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, while addressing a question on how India is supposed to become a $5-trillion economy at the current rate, defended the percentage the economy is supposed to grow at.

Goyal advised people not to get into the calculation seen on television. "If you're looking at a five trillion dollar economy, the country will have to grow at 12%. Today it's growing at 6%," he said.

"Don't get into those maths. Those maths have never helped Einstein discover gravity... If you'd only gone by structured formulae and what was past knowledge, I don't think there would have been any innovation in this world," he added.

In the face of widespread derision, Goyal issued a clarification: "The comment that I made had a certain context. Unfortunately some friends have sought to remove the context, pick up one line and create a very mischievous narrative."

Jokes and memes flooded the social media platform. "Why should Nirmala have all the fun? Goyal has just delivered a blockbuster dialogue.

Twitter promptly pointed out that it was Newton and not Einstein who discovered gravity, both names to shot up the trending lists.

So yesterday, the Finance Minister blamed millennials and today Goyal says to leave maths out of the economy! God help us. Piyush says that don't get into calculations about the economy.

Don't get into maths. Maths never helped Einstein discover Gravity. Is this joke on economy.

Sitharaman's comment linking millennials' preference for Uber and Ola cabs to the auto sector crisis had set off a flurry of criticism on social media. Sarcastic hashtag "#BoycottMillennials" quickly became a top trend.

Ms Sitharaman said millennials choosing app-based cab aggregators over committing money to EMIs for new cars had affected the auto sector, which has seen double-digit fall in sales for both two and four-wheeler manufacturers.

The BJP has been under repeated Congress attack over the flagging economy, that is witnessing job cuts across various sectors, and defend its ambitious target of containing fiscal deficit at 3.3 per cent of the GDP.

Congress's Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "What India needs isn't propaganda, manipulated news cycles & foolish theories about millennials, but a concrete plan to #FixTheEconomy that we can all get behind. Acknowledging that we have a problem is a good place to start".

Dangerous misuse of mandate: Sonia

Congress president Sonia Gandhi expressed concern over the country's "grim" economic situation and accused the BJP government of misusing its mandate in the "most dangerous" fashion.

Addressing central and state leaders from across the country in her first major meeting after taking over as Congress chief, she laid the roadmap for the party's revival at the grassroots level and asked them to adopt an "agitational" approach while raising people's causes and not be aggressive on the social media alone.

"Democracy has never been at greater peril than it is now. As I said a few weeks back, the mandate of 2019 is now being misused and abused in the most dangerous fashion," Gandhi said.

She said the country is looking to the Congress to confront and combat the forces that seek to appropriate the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, B R Ambedkar and misrepresent their true message for nefarious ends.

"We must stand up fearlessly to fight on the streets, fight in villages, towns and cities. We must have a concrete agitational agenda on issues of pressing concern to the people, whether economic or social.

"It is not enough to be active and aggressive on social media even though that too is needed and we need to do that better. Far more important is to go to the people directly," Sonia Gandhi said.

Sonia Gandhi said the Congress' resolve and resilience is under severe test. "We cannot afford to let our self-confidence and morale falter.

This is the time when it will become clear who are steadfastly devoted to the Congress as an ideology (as a vehicle), for strengthening the nation, and who look to the party only as an opportunity for self-advancement."