India's Economic Growth: Opposition vs BJP

New Delhi, Dec 7 (PTI) Opposition members in Rajya Sabha on Thursday accused the government of driving inequitable growth but ruling members defended policies of the NDA dispensation saying it has led to all-round development in the country.

During the discussion on the situation of the economy in the Upper House, Congress member L Hanumanthaiah and CPI(M)'s V Sivadasan said in the last nine-and-a-half years of the rule of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, the rich have become richer and the poor poorer.

"(In) the Modi government development model, which has been told by many people, the poor (are) forced to eat less while the rich make merry. That has been the situation in the last 10 years of the administration," Hanumanthaiah asserted.

He further said in 2023 the Indian economy is facing high inflation and income inequality.

"The high inflation is not the product of market forces alone but the governmental interventions that prioritise one section over the another," he claimed, adding persistently high inflation has been a constant alongside high unemployment.

The recent reduction in LPG prices is "a drop in the ocean" and it does not provide any relief to lakhs of people and families who are still suffering, he said.

"The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer are the major characteristics of this economy which is now running in the country. That is because 5 per cent Indians now own 60 per cent of the country's wealth whereas the bottom 50 per cent of Indians own only 3 per cent of (the country's) wealth," Hanumanthaiah said.

The absolute number of poor in India has risen by 76 million from 217 million in 2012-13 it is 283 million in 2019-20 in rural areas and from 53 million to 63 million in urban areas, he said.

In a similar vein, Sivadasan said some of the leaders of the ruling party were trying to "make an illusion that India is growing and the economy is growing".

"The assets and incomes of big corporate families are increasing, that is not development of the economy. The assets of the ruling party are increasing through the electroal bonds. They are getting thousands of crore of rupees. The increasing assets, increasing income of the ruling party is not the development economy," he noted.

Raising issues of non-dispersal of MNREGA wages, Sivadasan asked if the economy was growing fast and doing well why the government was not dispersing wages of the poorest of the poor people.

He also asked why Asha and Anganwadi workers were not getting their minimum wages.

Workers in many PSUs are struggling because of the policies of the government, he said, adding, "If the economy is growing then why are they not providing the proper wages to the workers in the companies?

Their claims were countered by BJP members, including Shambhu Sharan Patel, Aditya Prasad, Brijlal, Sakaldeep Rajbhar and Sadanand Shet Tanawde.

Patel asserted that India has become the fastest growing economy in the world under the leadership of Modi and there is not a sector which has not grown.

He alleged the previous Congress-led UPA government of indulging in divisive policies and ignoring the backward classes and said the Modi-led government has taken up several steps for the uplift of the backward classes.

Prasad pointed out that after the pandemic, India has taken up infrastructure projects such as developments of highways and airports at such speed which it is not a mean achievement.

On the other hand, Brijlal said under the Modi government law and order in India has improved drastically thereby making the country once again a favourable destination for foreign investment, unlike in the UPA regime which was marked by bomb blasts and terror attacks.

Rajbhar reiterated that farmers' income has grown under the NDA government and there has been all-round development.

Tanawde said the success of the BJP in the recent elections was also a reflection of the acceptance of the country's economic growth and policies under the leadership of Modi by the people.