​I do not know how many of you have been following the 84th Plenary Session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). The Party may have passed a resolution

​​ON AGRICULTURE, EMPLOYMENT & POVERTY ALLEVIATION AT 84TH PLENARY SESSION OF INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS

The draft proposal for the same is available at the Party Website.

​​This is the URL: https://goo.gl/kw1dD7

There is an English version and there is a Hindi version in this document. Both are in the same document. The English version runs to 8 pages. The remaining 11 pages are the Hindi version.

In page 6, I found the following quote:

The wealth of the richest 1% has gone up by 73% while the wealth of the bottom half of the population has grown by just 1% during the BJP regime.

Unfortunately, for them, it is verifiable and it is totally wrong. In fact, embarrassing for the Congress Party.

For example, the total wealth of the bottom 90% shrunk in India between 2010 and 2014 at a CAGR of 3.75% in USD terms. It has risen at a CAGR of 12.4% between 2014 and 2017.

​Yes, rupee crash vs. USD played a big part in that contraction between 2010 and 2014.​ But, that is part of the story of economic mismanagement – double-digit inflation, current account deficit, fiscal deficit and its monetisation, etc.

Funnily and more importantly, the rupee crash against the US dollar in 2013 did not stop the wealth share of the top 1% rising at a compounded annual rate of 5.8% between 2010 and 2014.

So, the differential in the growth rates of the wealth of the top 1% and that of the bottom 90% was 9.5% between 2010 and 2014, in favour of the former!

But, the differential in the growth rates of the wealth of the top 1% and that of the bottom 90% was 4.0% between 2014 and 2017, in favour of the latter!

Notice that median wealth per adult – a better measure of wealth inequality than mean wealth – declined between 2010 and 2014 from USD1300.0 to USD1006.0 (a big drop) and has since improved to USD1295.0 in 2017.

​​​Between 2014 and 2017, the rupee has remained stable or even slightly strengthened. The story of 2013 may well be repeated this year or next even if not of the same magnitude.

But, the statistics included in that Draft Proposal is about the actual data of the past and not about the future.

On that basis, it is wrong. Very wrong.

Bottom-line: The share of the top 1%, 5% and 10% in the total wealth in India increased in the UPA II years and they have declined in the NDA years.

Quite the opposite of the message that the Congress Party wants to send.