Modi’s reckless decisions halted economy: Congress

New Delhi, March 30 (IANS) Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "monumental mismanagement" of the economy, the Congress on Saturday said his "reckless decisions", including that of demonetisation and the hasty implementation of a "flawed" GST, had turned it into a "gasping" and "struggling" economy instead of a "galloping" economy.

"The fact is that there has been monumental mismanagement of the Indian economy under his (Modi's) watch. It is not a galloping economy, it is a gasping economy, a struggling economy. The Indian economy has also suffered because of the reckless decisions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, especially demonetisation," Congress leader Anand Sharma said in a press conference.

He said that Modi would have to give an account of what he did to the economy and how "tens of millions of jobs were destroyed" by his government post demonetisation.

Sharma added that time has come to punish Modi and his government for mismanaging the economy and "destroying the credibility of Indian data".

"Narendra Modi had made certain promises to the people of India. A betrayed nation is now questioning his betrayal, non-performance, non-delivery and non-creation of two crore jobs per year which has actually put a dark shadow over the future of our young people and their aspirations.

"The farmers are now asking questions about the non-fulfilment of the government's commitment to give 1-1/2 times the price as per the cost of the produce," Sharma said.

He added that the Prime Minister was "running scared" of the real issues but the Congress was determined not to allow him to get away.

"It is important that the Prime Minister comes back to the real issues. We are making it absolutely clear that the Congress will not allow the Prime Minister to hijack the narrative by talking about non-issues and playing with the people's emotions," the Congress leader said.