New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today took a jibe at the sharp criticism of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's handling of the economy by senior BJP leader and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha. In an article in a leading English daily, Mr Sinha had said, 'The Prime Minister claims that he has seen poverty from close quarters. His finance minister is working over time to make sure that all Indians also see it from equally close quarters.' In a post on Twitter, Mr Gandhi, taking a jibe at Mr Jaitley's handling of the economy, said, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your copilot & FM speaking.
Plz fasten your seat belts & take brace position. The wings have fallen off our plane.' He also posted on his Twitter handle the article by Mr Sinha in which he had criticised the handling of the economy by the Finance Minister. Mr Sinha, in his article, said, 'Private investment has shrunk as never before in two decades, industrial production has all but collapsed, agriculture is in distress, construction industry, a big employer of the work force, is in the doldrums, the rest of the service sector is also in the slow lane, exports have dwindled, sector after sector of the economy is in distress, demonetisation has proved to be an unmitigated economic disaster, a badly conceived and poorly implemented GST has played havoc with businesses and sunk many of them and countless millions have lost their jobs with hardly any new opportunities coming the way of the new entrants to the labour market.
For quarter after quarter, the growth rate of the economy has been declining until it reached the low of 5.7 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal, the lowest in three years.' Reacting to Mr Sinha's article, senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said, 'Yashwant Sinha speaks Truth to Power. Will Power now admit the Truth that economy is sinking?' In a series of tweets, Mr Chidambaram said,'TRUTH 1: "The growth rate of 5.7% is actually 3.7% or less " says Yashwant Sinha. TRUTH 2: "Instilling fear in the minds of the people is the name of the new game" says Yashwant Sinha. ETERNAL TRUTH: No matter what Power does, ultimately Truth will prevail.' (UNI)