Union Budget 2020: Sitaram Yechury takes a dig at Wikipedia citation in economic survey

On Saturday, CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury lambasted the Centre for destroying the Indian economy. Taking a dig at the Economic Survey for referencing Wikipedia, he contended that no amount of “spin” could hide the poor condition of the economy. He maintained that the Narendra Modi government would have to pay for its “misdeeds” for causing suffering to the poor.  

Furthermore, Yechury opined that the chances of economic revival were negligible until the BJP leaders stopped destroying the fabric of society. This taunt comes in the wake of some leaders from the ruling party making incendiary statements. For instance, MoS Finance Anurag Thakur chanted a slogan calling for all the traitors in the country to be shot just days before the presentation of the Union Budget.  

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Wikipedia cited as 'source'

The use of certain citations in the Economic Survey 2019-20 has garnered a lot of attention. For instance, Wikipedia, a volunteer-driven effort which is not necessarily considered as an accurate source of information, has been cited twice in Volume 1 of the survey on page 150 and 151. Two tables showing the number of banks in the global top 100 has been sourced using Wikipedia. Data has also been cited from private sources such as ICRA, heritage.org, fraserinstitute.org, and Ambit Capital.  

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Finance Minister to present Union Budget

In the all-party meeting called by the Parliamentary Affairs Minister before the start of the session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the MPs to keep the focus on economic issues. He said, "We should focus on how we can turn the global scenario in favour of India and in this budget session, and at the beginning of the New Year if we can give a proper direction to the country’s economy, it would be in the best interest of the country."

The Budget session of Parliament commenced on Friday with President Ram Nath Kovind's joint address to members of both Houses. Besides this, the Economic Survey was tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. This year's survey projects that India's GDP will grow at 6 to 6.5 per cent in the next fiscal year. Finance Minister Sitharaman will present the Union Budget at 11 am on Saturday.

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