'Only an ostrich would deny V shaped graph': Anurag Thakur counters Chidambaram on GDP

Union Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur on Wednesday gave a point-by-point rebuttal to senior Congress leader P Chidambaram's statement that 2020-2021 is the darkest year of the Indian economy in four decades. Issuing a statement via Twitter, Thakur said he is not surprised that the former Finance Minister chose to "ignore facts and went ahead with whataboutery".

"Consistent reforms and strong fundamentals have ensured India had a swift rebound from a contraction of 24.4 % in the 1st quarter of FY 2020-21 to a growth of 1.6 per cent in the 4th quarter of FY 2020-21," Thakur said.

"While you doubt the resilience of Indian entrepreneurs, small businesses, traders and MSMEs to revive themselves; various international agencies project India to grow by 12.5% in FY 2021-22 making us the only major economy to have a projected double-digit growth," he added.

Chidambaram on Tuesday said most Indians are poorer than they were two years ago and for this, the government must admit its "errors of commission and omission, reverse its policies and heed the advice of economists and the opposition."

Hitting back at the Congress leader, Anurag Thakur asked whether all other major economies of the world remained unaffected by the impact of the pandemic.

"Is the Indian economy an island in isolation? Have other major economies not faced a GDP contraction? Are you not aware that France, Germany, Italy, UK contracted by 8.2%, 4.9%, 8.9% and 9.9% respectively? Canada, Russia, South Africa, USA too have seen a contraction in their GDP in the past year. Despite the disruptions in the globalised world, India has remained resilient," the minister said.

Countering Chidambaram's claim that not much progress has been made on cash transfers, Anurag Thakur said the present NDA government procured 306.9 million tonnes of paddy and 162.7 million tonnes of wheat in the last 5 years, whereas during the UPA tenure (2009-2013) only 176.8 million tonnes of paddy and 139.5 million tonnes of wheat was procured.”

'Ostrich reading economic data'

Chidambaram on Tuesday said the predictions of the V-shaped economic recovery was a false story. "When the first wave of the pandemic appeared to subside last year, the Finance Minister and her Chief Economic Adviser began to sell the story of recovery. They saw 'green shoots' when no one else did. They predicted a V-shaped recovery. It was a false story and we had expressed our strong reservations and warned there were no signs of a recovery. Our pleas fell on deaf ears, and the result is negative growth of (-) 7.3 per cent," he said.

Citing the graph of the Central Statistics Office, the finance minister said only an ostrich would deny this is not a V-shaped graph.