Former Finance Minister of India, P Chidambaram, is mighty disgruntled with the revised GDP numbers released by the Niti Aayog for the UPA era. He has called it a “bad joke”.
Actually they are worse than a bad joke. The numbers are the result of a hatchet job.
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) November 28, 2018
Chidambaram also insinuated that the Niti Aayog Vice Chairman, Rajiv Kumar, was not open to debate the data and had told journalists that their questions were “undeserving of an answer”.
I wonder if Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar will agree to a debate the data than telling journalists that their questions are “undeserving of an answer”.
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) November 28, 2018
Rajiv Kumar did not take Chidambaram’s critique lightly and asserted that he accepts the Congress leader’s challenge for a debate to discuss the back series data. He also asserted that it was “disingenuous” of Chidambaram to say that he told the media not to ask questions.
Hon. @PChidambaram_IN Ji,challenge accepted.Let’s discuss & dissect back series data.I gave 3 hrs of detailed interview yesterday & it is somewhat disingenuous of you to say that I asked the media to not ask questions. Do give more coherent reasons for ur difficulty with new data https://t.co/RxF38JZutx
— Rajiv Kumar ?? (@RajivKumar1) November 29, 2018
According to the revised GDP numbers released by the government on Wednesday, India’s economic growth under the previous Congress-led coalition government was slower than estimated earlier and was never in double digits.
The Central statistical office re-calibrated the data to establish a better picture of the economy and thus lowered the GDP growth rates for a majority of the previous 10 years of the UPA regime.