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The Congress party has said the latest announcements made by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to boost the economy as “headline management” and criticised it for not doing enough to deal with the technical recession that has hit the country for the first time ever.
Se3nior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that the economy is in “dire straits and “the government does not have a plan to revive” it. “On the other hand it is busy deflecting the attention of the people from the economy and managing the headlines about the economy,” Chidambaram told reporters in a virtual press conference, PTI reported.
His comments came after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday made a slew of announcements, which focused on incentivising companies for new hiring and providing collateral-free loans to stressed sectors, among other things.
Chidambaram however did not seem impressed with the government’s measures as he asserted that “2020-21 will be a wasted year” and the size of the country’s economy will end up lower than the last year. “There is nothing in the announcements today that brings back the jobs,” Chidambaram said, suggesting that the unemployment rate on November 11 stood at 6.4%.
He also said that the economy can only be resuscitated by putting money into the hands of the poor. “Unless money is put in their hands, they will not be able to contribute to the revival of demand and the consequent revival of the economy.”
