Nirmala Sitharaman’s Husband Takes On Modi Govt, Says Centre In Denial Mode On Economic Slowdown

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s husband Parakala Prabhakar on Monday slammed Modi government over economic slowdown in the country and advised the Centre to 'embrace' the economic model put forward by former prime ministers PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh. Referring to the liberalisation of economy by the Congress government in 1991, Prabhakar said government should take a cue from the "Rao-Singh economic architecture".

Blaming the BJP for economic slowdown, in a column for The Hindu, Prabhakar wrote: “The problem is rooted mainly in the BJP’s inexplicable reluctance, over the years, to develop its own coherent set of ideas about the country’s economy. The rejection of Nehruvian ‘socialistic pattern of society’ was clear since the days of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. The BJP’s advocacy of what can, at best, be loosely termed as a capitalist, free market framework remained untested in practice. The party’s economic ideology and its articulation were limited to mainly critiquing the Nehruvian model from the fringes of the political spectrum. The BJP’s flirting with Gandhian socialism did not last for more than a few months after its founding. In economic policy, the party mainly adopted ‘Neti Neti (Not this, Not this’), without articulating what was its own ‘Niti (policy)’.”

Prabhakar went on to suggest that the economic performance of the Modi government made it choose 'a muscular political, nationalist, security platform' to make its re-election bid.

Earlier, the IMF chief, Kristalina Georgieva has said, the global economy is witnessing “synchronized slowdown” and its effect is “more pronounced” like India. Georgieva said slower growth is expected this year in nearly 90% of world economies. "Two years ago, the global economy was in a synchronized upswing. Measured by GDP, nearly 75 per cent of the world was accelerating. The global economy is now in a synchronized slowdown. In 2019, we expect slower growth in nearly 90 per cent of the world," said Georgieva in her first speech as managing director of the International Monetary Fund.