‘Hall of Shame’: Rahul Gandhi Slams PM Modi Over GDP Contraction

The Centre announced the GDP growth for FY21 at -7.3 per cent on Monday, as compared to 4 per cent in 2019-20.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hit out at PM Narendra Modi on Tuesday, 1 June, a day after the Centre announced the GDP growth for the financial year 2020-21 at -7.3 per cent as compared to 4 per cent in 2019-20.

"PM's hall of shame – Minimum GDP, Maximum Unemployment," Gandhi tweeted on Tuesday, along with a graph of rising unemployment among the youth during the tenure of the Modi government.

(Screenshot)

According to the data released by the Centre, India's GDP for the fourth quarter (January to March) grew by 1.6 per cent. Data released in February had revealed that the economy grew by 0.4 per cent in October-December 2020, the third quarter of FY-21.

Prior to this, with two straight quarters of GDP contraction, India had fallen into a technical recession.

Amid a nationwide lockdown in 2020, the first quarter (April-June) had seen a contraction of 24.4 per cent while the second quarter (July-September) saw a contraction of 8 per cent.

The announcement on Monday came amid concerns of the magnitude of the impact of the second wave of COVID, with consequent local lockdowns, on the economy in 2021-22 FY.

‘Incompetent Economy Management’

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday also blamed the "ineptitude and incompetent" economy management of the Modi government for the state of the economy.

"The GDP in 2020-21 is lower than the GDP in 2018-19. FY 2020-21 has been the darkest year of the economy in four decades. The performance in the four quarters of 2020-21 tells the story... The current state of the economy is no doubt largely due to the impact of the pandemic, but it has been compounded by the ineptitude and incompetent economic management of the BJP-led NDA government," the former finance minister was quoted as saying.