Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday said the state of the economy was “deeply worrying” and asked the Government to shun “vendetta politics” and reach out to “sane voices and thinking minds” to steer the economy out of this “man-made crisis”.
Accused the Centre of all-round mismanagement, Singh said youth, farmers, entrepreneurs and the marginalised sections deserve better.
Singh said, “The state of the economy today is deeply worrying. The last quarter’s GDP growth rate of 5 pc signals that we are in the midst of a prolonged slowdown. India has the potential to grow at a much faster rate but all-round mismanagement by the Modi Government has resulted in this slow down.”
India cannot afford to continue down this path, he said, adding, “I urge the Government to put aside vendetta politics, and reach out to all sane voices and thinking minds, to steer our economy out of this man-made crisis.”
Singh said it is particularly distressing that the manufacturing sector’s growth is tottering at 0.6 pc. “This makes it very clear that our economy has not yet recovered from man-made blunders of demonetisation and a hastily implemented GST,” he said.
The former PM alleged that institutions are under attack and their autonomy is being eroded. On government taking Rs 1.76 lakh crore from the RBI reserves, Singh said the resilience of the RBI will be tested after this record transfer to the government. This, he said, “claims that it does not have a plan on what it will do with this windfall”.