Ordinary households and small businesses are under intense pressure in the face of high unemployment and inflation levels and the Union government is too inept to fix it, Congress General Secretary in-charge of Communications, Jairam Ramesh, said in a statement issued on Sunday, citing various data points from the Reserve Bank of India’s latest bulletin and other sources.
Countering the government’s claims that savings had declined because people were buying cars and homes, Mr. Ramesh pointed to RBI data showing a 23% increase in gold loans and 29% increase in personal loans in the last one year — calling these “clear signs of distress, as people go into debt to meet basic expenses”.
While posting the statement on X, Mr. Ramesh wrote, “No matter how much the Modi government hides the data, the reality is that the vast majority of people are suffering. Our statement highlighting some of the facts reported last week — mainly from the September RBI Bulletin — that are being brushed under the carpet.”
In the statement, Mr. Ramesh said that the latest bulletin of the RBI showed the “complete failure of the Modi government to execute a recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic”. He pointed out that around 43% of the population was in the labour force as of February 2020 and 3.5 years later labour force participation stood at around 40%. Mr. Ramesh also noted that in 2022, women were still making only 85% of what they made pre-pandemic and also cited a recent report of the Azim Premji University which showed that over 42% graduates under the age of 25 were unemployed in 2021-22.
Rise in prices
Mr. Ramesh also highlighted the price rise in essential commodities such as pulses, sugar, atta, besan, and gur, which, he said, was impacting the household budget of ordinary families.
Citing the 16% fall in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Mr. Ramesh said foreign investors were increasingly unlikely to bet on India because of the “Modi government’s crony capitalism, failed economic policies, and stoking of communal tensions”.
The Congress leader said small businesses were losing out because of the Modi government’s crony capitalism, which had made it “impossible for the MSMEs to compete”. He cited a Marcellus report that said that 80% of profits in 2022 had gone to just 20 companies. He pointed out that before 2014, small businesses’ share in sales was around 7%, which had come down to 4% in Q1 of 2023.
“From increasing unemployment, rising prices of household essentials, shrinking MSME sales, slow domestic credit growth, increased household financial liabilities and decreased savings, and declining FDI, the Modi government has mismanaged the economy across all sectors,” Mr. Ramesh said, adding, “the government is too inept to fix it”.
