Congress slams BJP as GDP growth slows to 5.3 percent in July-September quarter

The Congress party on Saturday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rate slipped to 5.3 percent in the second quarter, saying the NDA government has done nothing on the economic front in the last six months.

"In the past six months of the NDA Government, there is nothing novel or imaginative that has happened on the economic front. These people were crowing when the GDP grew to 5.9 percent in the first quarter of the 2014, conveniently forgetting the fact that for the first 56 days of that quarter it was a UPA Government which was in office," said Congress leader Manish Tewari.

"The entire economic stewardship of this government lacks imagination, lacks content, lacks substance... and they have not been able to deliver on even the most rudimentary economic parameter which they had promised during their election campaign," he added.

Congress leader Rashid Alvi echoing similar sentiments said that the GDP would further go down if the NDA Government doesn't take apt steps in this regard.

"The GDP growth has gone down and will go down further. If the government will just keep giving speeches and will not work, then the GDP cannot grow," said Alvi.

"In last six months, inflation has increased. The black money has neither come back nor is it known by what time it will come back. Even its amount is unknown," he added while asserting that corruption has increased during the NDA tenure.

Alvi further said that the people of the country would soon realize their mistake.

The Indian economy slowed in the first full quarter of the new government, growing at 5.3 percent from 5.7 percent in the previous April-June quarter.

The GDP growth was dragged down by the poor performance of the manufacturing sector.