India fastest growing economy, opposition raises questions out of jealously: Finance Minister in LS

PTI, Dec 12, 2022, 8:34 PM IST

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New Delhi: India is the “fastest-growing” economy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi but there are “people” in the Opposition who keep raising questions over the country’s progress just out of “jealousy”, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in Lok Sabha on Monday.

The minister’s remark came during the Question Hour after Congress member from Telangana A Revanth Reddy raised the issue of depreciation of the rupee against the dollar and sought to know from the government if it has any action plan to control the situation.

The Congress MP from Telangana alleged that the Modi government has “ruined” the country’s economy since 2014 and also referred to Prime Ministre Modi’s remark made during the erstwhile Congress-led UPA regime that the rupee had gone into the ICU when it was valued at Rs 66 against a dollar.

Replying to Reddy’s question, Sitharaman said the Congress member, while referring to Modi’s remarks on the value of the rupee against the dollar in the past, should have also spoken about the economic indicators of that time.

“Economy was certainly in the ICU then. India was kept in fragile five,” she said.

”India is the fastest growing economy today” despite the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, she asserted.

”This is a matter of pride. But they are making fun of it,” she said.

”It’s sad that they talk such things out of jealousy when our economy is doing well…. Today these people are standing against the Indian economy,” the finance minister hit back.

She asserted that the Indian rupee has been strong against ”every currency”.

”And, that is proved and I can read the records,” she added.

The US dollar is getting ”stronger and stronger” due to ”the policy adopted by the US Fed”, the finance minister said.

In the last couple of weeks, the foreign reserves have gone up because of the flow of FDIs and FIIs, she said.

”The fact remains that the reserves are going up. That’s why, at this time, talks about foreign exchange, rupee depreciation, reserves coming down or investors running away are actually not proven by data,” she added.

While asking a supplementary question, Congress member Reddy said the government under Prime Minister Modi has borrowed over Rs 18 lakh crore in the past eight years alone while the country’s borrowing from 1947 to 2014 stood at over Rs Rs 55.87 lakh crore.

“You are living on borrowing Rs 10 lakh crore every year… this government has completely ruined the country,” he charged.