GDP Not Ramayana, Won’t Remain Useful In Future: BJP MP's Bizarre Claim In Lok Sabha

As India’s growth slumped to 4.5 per cent in the second quarter of the current financial year, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Member of Parliament, Nishikant Dubey, on Monday made mockery of himself and the ruling party by making a bizarre claim the country’s GDP growth won’t be relevant in the future.

"GDP was introduced in 1934. There was no such concept before that. You cannot consider GDP as the gospel truth. It is not Bible, Ramayana or Mahabharata. GDP will not remain very useful in the future,” the BJP MP from Jharkhand’s Godda said in the Lok Sabha.

His remarks came days after India’s economic growth in the second quarter slipped to the lowest in more than six years. The country's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) grew at 4.5 per cent in the second quarter as compared to 8 during the same time last year. This was the lowest growth in nearly 26 quarters. The previous low was recorded at 4.3 per cent in the January-March period of 2012-13 during the UPA rule.

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Expressing his concerns over the poor state of Indian economy, former prime minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday the GDP growth rate of 4.5 per cent was unacceptable and worrisome, and urged his successor Narendra Modi to set aside "deep-rooted suspicion" of society and nurse India back to harmonious, mutually trustworthy society that can help the economy soar.

Delivering his valedictory address at a national conclave on economy, Singh said mutual trust is the bedrock of societal transactions fostering economic growth, but "our social fabric of trust, confidence is now torn and ruptured". He said the "toxic combination of deep distrust, pervasive fear and a sense of hopelessness in our society" is stifling economic activity and growth.