Sibal takes a dig Modi over economic, security situation

Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Saturday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the slide in performance of his government on the economy, saying that manufacturing, production of capital goods, passenger vehicle sales were all down.

In a tweet, he also referred to repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistan since the repeal of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and the challenge posed by Islamabad's attempts to stoke cross-border terrorism.

Sibal referred to Modi hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping at the second informal summit at Mamallapuram and that the challenges for the government were not easing.

"Modi hai to mumkin hai : 1) Manufacturing shrinks 1.2 per cent - worst in 6 years, 2) Production of capital goods falls 21 per cent, 3) Passenger vehicle sales fell 23.7 per cent, 4) 600 ceasefire violations since Aug 5, 5) 500 terrorists ready to cross, but, Pallava's at centre stage at Mamallapuram," Sibal said.

The data released by the government on Friday showed that industrial output contracted by minus 1.1 per cent in August month-on-month due to poor performance by manufacturing, power generation and mining sectors.

The manufacturing sector, which contributes over 77 per cent to the IIP, showed a decline of 1.2 per cent in output during August 2019 as against a growth of 5.2 per cent in the same month of last year.

The government has taken a series of measures to boost demand and give a fillip to the economy.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had last month announced a reduction in corporate tax rates for domestic companies.

The two-day informal summit between PM Modi and President Xi concluded on Saturday. The two leaders had visited world heritage sites at Mamallapuram on Friday.