Indian economy on the verge of anarchy: Manish Tewari

Senior Congress leader Manish Tewari today hit out at the Narendra Modi-led NDA government saying the country's economy was currently going through the worst phase in decades and was on the "verge of anarchy".
"Looking at the GDP figures released yesterday, it is now very much clear that the Indian economy has collapsed completely under the NDA's three-year rule, as the growth rate has remained at just 6.1 per cent in the quarter ending March. It shows that the economy was hit badly by the decision of demonetisation," Tewari said in a press conference here today.
Citing the GDP growth figures released yesterday, Tewari said the performance of Indian economy has been the worst in the past 37 years.

"Even these figures are jugglery, as the Modi government has changed the base year for GDP calculation from 2004-05 to 2011-12. If you take into account 2004-05 as the base year, GDP growth would come down to just 4.1 per cent. This is the worst ever performance in the last 37 years," Tewari said.
"The economy is on the verge of anarchy. Non performing assets are touching new heights. The Centre has no clear policy to recover the NPAs of over Rs 12 lakh crore from defaulters. The economy is down because of the note-ban, inspector-raj and economic mismanagement," the former Union minister said.

The Congress leader also hit out at the Centre on the issue of internal security and foreign policy.

"Internal security is crippled under the BJP rule. The situation in Kashmir is more dangerous now than it was in 1979. Naxal activities are also spreading fast. However, even after three years, the BJP government has failed to formulate or execute any concrete policy to tackle it," he said.
Commenting on the foreign policy, he said India has lost its grip as the country's old friends like Russia are now getting cozy with Pakistan.
"When India raised its voice against China's plans to access PoK under the 'One Belt One Road' initiative, no country except Bhutan supported us. Even our old friend Russia has started conducting joint military exercise with Pakistan. This is the state of our foreign policy today," he said.

When asked about Congress' strategy to tackle BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Tewari said the upcoming presidential polls would help the party form a broad vision for the general elections.
"The process of formulating a strategy for the 2019 polls would begin during the presidential polls. This election for choosing the country's next president would help us in articulating our vision for 2019," Tewari said.