New Delhi, Aug 14: Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha on Friday held that government’s policies was the main reason for declining the economic growth trajectory in the country and alleged that “demonetisation” was a disastrous decision to demonetise the currency which completely failed to achieve even a single of its avowed objectives”. Holding a press conference here in New Delhi, Sinha said in 2013, before this government took office, the annual growth rate of the Indian economy was 6.39 percent and rising in US Dollar terms. “After the Modi government assumed office the growth rate touched a high of 8.26 per cent in 2016 and since then it has been downhill, all the way with growth rate declining to 6.53 percent in 2017, 4.04 percent in 2019 and finally to 7.96 percent in the Covid year of 2020,” he alleged. Saying India was in the grip of stagflation, Mr. Sinha said, 2020 was a Covid year and demand was depressed and it is baffling therefore that in a year like that inflation recorded such a jump. In July this year, it stood at 5.6 percent. Questioning, the government on employment, the Former Finance Minister said, “unemployment was in excess of 5 per cent and rose to a new high in the absence of adequate measures to deal with this issue especially relating to migrant workers as a result of the pandemic. It went up to 7.11 per cent in 2020, which is really a cause of concern for us,” he said. Accusing the government of not passing the benefits of moderating international crude oil prices to the consumers, he said ,”In FY 2021 alone petrol prices were hiked 76 times and diesel prices 73 times. This nothing but daylight robbery on an unsuspecting populace,” Sinha said.
