India’s debt burden grew to Rs 55 lakh crore under 14 Prime Ministers since Independence but Narendra Modi has pushed it up to Rs 155 lakh crore in nine years, the Congress said on Saturday.
The party, which added that the debt-GDP ratio had risen to 84 per cent against an average of 64.5 per cent for developing countries, demanded a white paper on the economy.
“Only lofty claims by Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot show the real plight of the Indian economy,” Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said.
She said that every Indian now had a debt of Rs 1.2 lakh on their head.
“The Modi government (is responsible for additional) debts worth Rs 100 lakh crore in the last nine years. Modi alone did what 14 Prime Ministers together couldn’t,” Shrinate said.
“This means the debt rises by Rs 4 lakh every second, Rs 2.4 crore every minute and Rs 1.03 lakh crore every month. And who is the beneficiary of this rising debt when 83 per cent Indians suffered income losses over the last few years?”
Shrinate added: “The beneficiaries of the debt are chosen capitalist friends of Modi. When millions have fallen below the poverty line and small and medium industries are closing down, the number of billionaires has increased from 102 in 2010 to 166 in 2022.
“The truth is that the bottom 50 per cent of the population owns 3 per cent of assets and contributes 64 per cent of the GST collection. The top 10 per cent rich, who command 80 per cent of property, contribute only 3 per cent of the GST.”
Shrinate said Indians were paying the highest price for LPG cylinders in the world and the third highest for petrol.
The Congress general secretary in charge of the organisation, K.C. Venugopal, questioned the Prime Minister’s commitment to keeping airfares down.
“Modi famously said that those wearing ‘Hawai Chappal’ (slippers) can travel on a ‘Hawai Jahaaj’ (aeroplane). With Delhi-Mumbai fights crossing Rs 15k+ every day, his words sound like a cruel joke,” Venugopal tweeted.
Venugopal added: “These skyrocketing airfares are creating havoc among the middle class. The government’s complete free pass to the airlines, coupled with their rampant privatisation spree, is responsible for the dire situation today.”
Venugopal asked the civil aviation ministry to “confront some hard facts”.
“When the economy is in doldrums, it is criminal to lift the caps placed on airfare, like the govt did in Aug ’22,” he tweeted.
“With Go First collapsing and SpiceJet barely flying any routes, why did thegovernment have no strategy to correct this massive dip in the number of flights being flown? The pricing algorithm will keep pushing the priceup in cases of a high demand-supply mismatch. Does the government have any concrete intervention planned to check these airfares?
“Are the profits earned by private airport operators, especially Adani with its mega investment in airports, coming out of the pockets of the common man?”
Venugopal also asked why the civil aviation ministry was “so apathetic to the people’s suffering that it allowed the flight prices from Bhubaneswar and Kolkata to go out of control when the Balasore train tragedy took place”.
“The taxes on ATF fuel are a noose around the neck of airlines. The government should ensure the high cost is not passed on to the consumers,” he added.
