National News
Modiji, Moody’s failed to gauge mood of nation: Congress
NEW DELHI: Congress sought to dampen the Modi government’s upbeat mood over the Moody’s upgrade by saying that BJP was “clutching at the straws to claim lost credibility”, and that reports coming from international bodies were at odds with the ground reality in the country.
The opposition party reminded that Moody’s had rated American sub-prime mortgages as ‘AAA’ before the economic meltdown snared the world. ” Modiji and Moody’s combination+ have failed to gauge the ‘Mood of the Nation’. Hunger deaths, farmer’s shootings, agri-distress, job losses, lowest credit ratings, rising prices, plunging exports, flawed GST, demonetisation disaster, stagnant growth are the real indices to measure it,” AICC spokesmen Rajeev Shukla and Randeep Surjewala said.
The Left parties also slammed the government, saying that the Modi dispensation tended to swing between liking and disliking foreign reports on India, depending on whether they were favourable. CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury tweeted: “All indices of real lives of Indians: Jobs, Growth: are down. Rural distress, Malnutrition, gender gap and hunger is worsening…. Inequality of Wealth is up in 3 years sharply. 1% own over 58% of Indian wealth. Who is this govt fooling?….Modi govt wants the poor, the hungry, protesting farmers, jobless and those hit by the Economy crumbling, to eat these ‘ratings’? This only taunts and mocks those suffering the hopelessness brought in by BJP’s Jumlanomics.”
Congress said the Moody’s report which the government was hyping up was the third in a row after a World Bank report on “ease of doing business” and Pew survey showing high levels of satisfaction with PM Modi’s leadership. The party underlined that the WB report was limited to Delhi and Mumbai while the Pew study was based on interviews with just 2,464 people.
CPI secretary D Raja also alleged that the Centre was running away from a debate by putting off the winter session of Parliament, where it could be cornered by the opposition parties. Questioning the importance BJP was giving to reports coming from abroad, Surjewala joked, “At this pace, Modiji should be fighting next election abroad.”
