New Delhi:
Union Commerce and Trade Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday hit out at Opposition leaders and former officers questioning India’s 7.8% GDP progress determine for the April-June 2026 quarter, accusing them of evaluating an previous knowledge sequence with a brand new one and describing them as “the one jobless folks left”.
Talking on the annual session of the Automotive Part Producers Affiliation (ACMA) in Delhi, Goyal mentioned, “I see on TV among the Opposition leaders, even presumably a former finance secretary or a former RBI (Reserve Financial institution of India) governor, each of whom couldn’t full their tenure in India… They do not even know [that they should] evaluate apples with apples. They’re making an attempt to misguide the folks of India, evaluating progress charge [based on an] previous sequence with a brand new sequence the place the bottom yr itself has modified.”
Each males Goyal alluded to have been publicly crucial of the info this week.
#WATCH | Delhi: On Opposition leaders’ tackle GDP progress numbers, Union Minister Piyush Goyal says, “Fact can’t be hidden…Ministers don’t manufacture this knowledge…When you’ve gotten such a adverse mindset, in a approach, you might be diminishing your self. While you try to demotivate… pic.twitter.com/x3zw7MGVAZ
— ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2026
Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan advised information company PTI: “Are these progress numbers actual? Even the bigger economic system is unsure if the expansion numbers aren’t actual. There are some discrepancies which one has to fret about.” He added: “If we’re rising so quick, why aren’t we creating extra jobs, extra good jobs? And why is funding not going down?”
Subhash Chandra Garg, who was finance secretary from March to July 2019 and later took voluntary retirement, advised NDTV the headline determine rested on a revised base. “The 7.8 per cent appears to be like spectacular on the face of it, however we should always get into the fact of it,” Garg mentioned. “The present-prices GDP final yr was Rs 86 trillion. This has been revised all the way down to Rs 80 trillion… If you happen to had not revised final yr’s GDP, the expansion in present costs would have been solely 2.6 per cent.”
Minister Goyal responded on the employment query too, “They’re looking for holes, asking, the place are the roles? They can not digest that they themselves are the one jobless folks left. The one doable job left [for them] is to get on a TV panel and try to concoct and manufacture an argument.”
Defending the info, the minister mentioned: “Fact can’t be hidden… Ministers don’t manufacture this knowledge… When you’ve gotten such a adverse mindset, in a approach, you might be diminishing your self. While you try to demotivate folks by distorting the reality, you betray the folks.”
Goyal mentioned the expansion charge was with out parallel and credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Report progress of seven.8% is one thing that no different nation has been in a position to replicate. That is the potential, laborious work, and joint effort of 140 crore folks within the nation. Because of this, India has emerged as a world trusted associate. PM Modi has led the nation with farsightedness,” he mentioned, including, “Just a few jobless folks name themselves economists and seem on TV channels to hurt the nation. Don’t fall for this.”
The BJP chief additionally attacked Opposition leaders “who need to see India as ‘a lifeless economic system'”. He mentioned, “They’ll fail as soon as once more, identical to they’ve failed time and again. India will proceed to develop quickly beneath the management of PM Modi.” US President Donald Trump described India as a “lifeless economic system” in 2025 whereas criticising its commerce limitations and its vitality commerce with Russia – a characterisation Chief of Opposition Rahul Gandhi had backed.
Congress common secretary Jairam Ramesh mentioned on Monday that the figures offered a “GDP, Vastly Distorted Image, of the economic system”. He additionally mentioned in a submit on X, “The Modi authorities should perceive: PR can polish the image of GDP, however not the economic system itself.”
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation launched the first-quarter knowledge on Monday, placing progress at 7.8%, above the Reserve Financial institution of India’s 7% forecast. The PM known as the determine a “herculean feat”.
The ministry on Wednesday issued a six-point rebuttal with out naming Garg, saying the Rs 86.05 lakh crore determine belonged to the previous 2011-12 base-year sequence and couldn’t be in contrast with the brand new 2022-23 sequence. “It’s subsequently incorrect to interpret the distinction as a deliberate downward revision of final yr’s GDP to mechanically improve the present yr’s progress charge,” the ministry mentioned.
