Rahul Gandhi lists 3 actions that 'destroyed' economy after FM's 'Act of God' remark

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's remark that the Indian economy has been hit by the Coronavirus pandemic, which is an 'Act of God', and hence will see a contraction in the current fiscal, has received flak from Opposition parties. In a sharp counter to the FM's assertion, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a tweet on Friday listed three actions by the Modi government that he said has "destroyed" the economy.

"India’s economy has been destroyed by three actions: 1. Demonetisation 2. Flawed GST 3. Failed lockdown," Gandhi said, further asserting that "anything else is a lie."

The former Congress president has repeatedly cornered the Modi government over its economic performance and has attributed the sudden announcement of demonetisation of high-value currency notes in November 2016, the rollout of the Good and Services Tax (GST) in July the following year and the imposition of a nationwide lockdown in late March this year in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, as the reasons for declining growth rate. The Indian economy is headed for a sharp contraction for the first time in over four decades as per the government's own estimates.

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Act of God' says Sitharaman

After the 41st meeting of the GST Council on Thursday, Sitharaman in her briefing to the media said that the Centre will pay the States the compensation which strictly arises out of GST implementation. The compensation expected by the States has been estimated at Rs 3 lakh crore, of which Rs 65,000 crore would be funded from the revenues garnered by the levy of cess. In addition, the Centre has also estimated that of this Rs 2.35 lakh crore, Rs 97,000 crore compensation requirement is due to GST rollout and the remaining is on account of the impact of COVID-19 on the economy.

"This year we are facing an extraordinary situation that even below 10 per cent approximate estimation you are facing an 'Act of God' which might even result in a contraction of the economy...," Sitharaman said.

Opposition leaders immediately hit out at the Finance Minister for her statement. Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi in her tweets questioned Sitharaman over the economic situation before the COVID-19 outbreak. She termed the deteriorating economic situation as 'Act of Fraud'. Congressman Jairam Ramesh also took shots at the FM

BJP MP Subramanian Swamy lashed out at the FM and said that he will post the video of her statement soon. In addition, he also questioned whether the decline in annual growth rate from 8 per cent in 2015 to 3.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2020 before the pandemic should be attributed as an act of god as well. 

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