Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has no understanding of the economy and the world is mocking India due to his government’s divisive politics that pitted people against each other.
Addressing a rally in Mahendergarh in the place of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who opted out on account of ill-health, Gandhi said MNREGA, an employment guarantee scheme, was one of the prime drivers of the economic growth during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance rule.
Gandhi said he had met economists from the United States who shared their analysis of the economic growth between 2004 and 2014. “Their findings surprised me: they said that due to MNREGA the increased consumption led to spending and then growth,” said Gandhi.
Demonetisation and ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ (GST) have destroyed small and medium enterprises, he said. PM Modi took away spending power of the poor through demonetisation. “There’s only one way out of this economic downturn. Send money to the hands of the poorest. Narendra Modi does not understand economics,” said Gandhi.
“The world is mocking India. The country which used to show the way to the world, used to live with love, used to progress fast…Today one caste is fighting the other, one religion is fighting the other and the country’s pride, its economy, Narendra Modi has destroyed it,” Gandhi said.
A helicopter carrying Gandhi was forced to make an emergency landing in Rewari after it failed to touch ground in Delhi due to bad weather on Friday. He was returning to Delhi from Haryana. During his short halt, Gandhi took the opportunity to play cricket with some children.
