PMO owes apology for wrong facts on Gujarat:BJP(Video)

New Delhi, 25 March 2014

Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) today said, Prime Minister’s office owes an apology for presenting wrong facts on Gujarat development.

Party leader Shri Ravi Shank Prasad demanded apology from PMO in reference to Prime Minister’s media advisor Pankaj Pachauri’s tweets sharing some economic data , at variance with those released by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) earlier, to say how Gujarat doesn’t figure in the top ten state economies in the country. He also said that in 2012-13, out of 19 states, Gujarat had the slowest growth rate at 9.52% at current prices.

Soon after posting the tweets, Pachauri was attacked by many followers with one (@anujg) demanding that he must “apologize for the false propaganda”.

With its economic size in 2012-13 estimated at Rs 4.27 lakh crore at constant (2004-05) prices, the state is fifth largest economy only after Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, UP and Andhra Pradesh, according to the CSO which has estimated state GDP as on March 1, based on information supplied by the states..

Though GDP growth is generally measured at constant (2004-05) prices, Pachauri had preferred the current prices parameter and had put up a graphic on his Twitter handle listing growth rate of 19 states with Gujarat at the bottom.

Contrary to Pachauri’s assertion that Gujarat’s growth rate was 9.52% in 2012-13 at current prices, the state’s GDP actually grew by 12.69%.