Economic growth despite poor monsoons, political adversities: BJP

New Delhi

BJP on Wednesday credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership for the economic growth of 7.9 per cent in the last quarter, saying it was an “pleasant outcome” of the government’s work under him despite “political adversities”.

Party general secretary Bhupender Yadav also attacked Congress over its opposition to the government’s legislative agenda, saying while for Modi democracy was “form of and by people”, for Congress people meant a family.

In a press conference, Yadav parried questions over whether the policies of Reserve Bank of India under its Governor Raghuram Rajan also contributed to the growth, saying Modi was leading the team and everybody was its members.

There has been increasing interest in the government’s and party’s stand on Rajan after BJP MP Subramanian Swamy launched a series of attacks on him and demanded his ouster.

BJP has officially maintained that it had nothing to say about the issue.

Yadav said the economy has shown all-round growth, including in manufacturing and agriculture, adding 25 per cent growth in unorganised sector meant that numbers of jobs were also increasing.

The Rajya Sabha MP credited the Centre’s commitment, responsibility, fiscal discipline and management under Modi and also praised Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s “economic skills”.

“The growth has come despite poor monsoons, political adversities and sluggish economy… Modi has led the country to become the fastest growing economy in the world,” he said.

With questions over whether the growth was percolating to the masses, he said the per capita income has seen an increase of six per cent and it coupled with growth in unorganised sector indicates that rural economy is also showing momentum.

Economy grew by 7.9 per cent in March quarter to consolidate India’s position as the fastest growing major economy with a five-year high growth rate of 7.6 per cent for the full fiscal on robust manufacturing growth.

India has left China with 6.7 per cent of growth in the last quarter behind, Yadav said.

PTI