BJP veteran Yashwant Sinha, a former finance minister, has made sensational comments in his article titled “I need to speak up now”. He says, the economy of the country is on a downward spiral. He says, “I shall be failing in my national duty if I did not speak up even now against the mess the finance minister has made of the economy. I am also convinced that what I am going to say reflects the sentiments of a large number of people in the BJP and elsewhere who are not speaking up out of fear”. His analysis led to a very wide debate among the economists, politicians and common public alike. Highlights of his detailed analysis are as below.

Recession: He remarked, ” Private investment has shrunk as never before in two decades, agriculture is in distress, construction industry, a big employer of the work force, is in the doldrums, the rest of the service sector is also in the slow lane.”

Demonetization: He also responded on demonetization. He told demonetization is not responsible for this deceleration as the deceleration had started much earlier. But demonetization only added fuel to fire.

GDP: He commented on GDP too. He told that the methodology for calculation of the GDP was changed by the present government in 2015 and according to the old method of calculation, the growth rate of 5.7 per cent is actually 3.7 per cent or less.

Mr Sinha predicts that a revival by the time of the next Lok Sabha election “appears highly unlikely” and “a hard landing is inevitable.”