BJP MP Nishikant Dubey was speaking during a debate on the decline in GDP growth in the Lok Sabha BJP MP Nishikant Dubey was speaking during a debate on the decline in GDP growth in the Lok Sabha

Downplaying the role of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in determining the state of the economy, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Monday said in Parliament the parameter shouldn’t be treated as gospel like the “Bible or Ramayana” as it won’t be of much use in the future.

“GDP 1934 mein aaya issey pehle koi GDP nahi tha…… Keval GDP ko Bible, Ramayan ya Mahabharat maan lena satya nahi hai aur future mein GDP ka koi bahot zyada upyog bhi nahi hoga, (GDP didn’t exist before 1934. Only GDP cannot be considered Bible, Ramayan or Mahabharat. It won’t even be used much in the future),” he said.

Pitching for sustainable development as an important factor over GDP in assessing the economy, he said government measures such as the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan and Ayushmaan Bharat improved the lives of people.

Owing to a deceleration in manufacturing output and subdued farm sector activity, India’s GDP growth slipped to a 26-quarter low of 4.5 per cent in the second quarter (July-September) of the current fiscal. The GDP growth rate has now slowed for the sixth consecutive quarter with the previous low recorded at 4.3 per cent in March 2013.

Lok Sabha members from various opposition parties expressed concern over the health of the economy and asked the government to take effective steps rather than “clutching at straws” to deal with the problem.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury asked the BJP leadership to seek advice from former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on ways to deal with the current economic slowdown. He said Singh’s warning that demonetisation would bring down the country’s GDP by 2 per cent has come true.

Mahua Moitra (TMC) said the economy has faced a crippling blow due to demonetisation and faulty implementation of the Goods and Services Tax. She also said the government was giving relief to Foreign Institutional Investors but the same was not being extended to Indian corporates.

Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant also questioned the government’s move to sell BPCL. He said though the government is taking decisions, it is not looking at the impact. He also said demonetisation has badly hurt the economy. The economic slowdown started with demonetisation and has hit every sector that gives signs of doomed financial prospects.

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