NEW DELHI: The government has refuted senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha ’s charge that the economy was on a downward spiral and finance minister Arun Jaitley was responsible for it. Senior ministers emphasised that the slowdown was temporary consequence of ‘transformative reforms’ like demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax, which would be corrected in due course.Railway minister Piyush Goyal dismissed points Sinha raise in a newspaper article. “One is entitled to one’s understanding of issues. Under Narendra Modi, structural reforms are taking place on an unprecedented scale and whenever transformative changes are undertaken, there will be some problems,” Goyal said when asked about Sinha’s remarks.Sinha had described demonetisation as an “unmitigated economic disaster” and stated that GST had been “badly conceived and poorly implemented.”Goyal said the launch of demonetisation had to be kept a secret, else its purpose would have been defeated. Defending the move, he said it had proved that the government meant business on the issue of checking corruption and unearthing black money. Goyal said GST was not of the NDA government alone and all major decisions were taken in the GST Council which has representatives of all states and union territories. He said that Jaitley had done a commendable job in taking all states onboard and building a consensus.Home minister Rajnath Singh also defended Jaitley. “The whole world has acknowledged that India is one of the fastest growing economies. India has a standing and credibility in the international community,” he said.Goyal underlined that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not shied away from taking bold measures, even if that put electoral prospects of the BJP at risk. “The reforms have ticked all the goals. This (slowdown) is transitional. One has to keep a much longer vision. Some period is needed to tide over (the slowdown). Difficulties and challenges come when you take a big step. You have to stick to the course. You cannot build a skyscraper on a weak foundation,” Goyal said.He maintained that it is “too early” to discuss fiscal deficit targets and more disinvestment had taken place in the last three years under NDA than several years before that. Goyal disagreed that the government did not make good use of the funds at its disposal when the crude oil prices had fallen. He said it was wrong to say “lakhs of crore” were with the government as the tax collections from oil also fell when prices went down. On Sinha’s allegation that the government had changed the methodology of calculating GDP, Goyal said it was done every “8 to 10 years”.This is a regular process, he said, adding that the new base could have helped the government only in the first year. Sinha’s remarks were preceded by criticism on the economic slowdown by RSS’ trade union wing, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Swadeshi Jagran Manch and people like S Gurumurthy and Subramanian Swamy. BJP leaders have maintained that the party welcomed “feedback and inputs” but unfazed by such criticism.