World knows India's economy is the fastest growing: Rajnath

Indian home minister Rajnath Singh today downplayed senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha's criticism of the finance minister Arun Jaitley, saying India's economy is the fastest growing in the world, and the country's credibility has been established in the international arena.

Singh, who was responding to a question on Sinha's remarks over the state of the economy, said no one should forget these facts about the country.

"The whole world admits that India is the fastest growing economy in the world. No one should forget this fact. In the matter of economy, in the international arena, India's credibility has been established," he told reporters here.

In an opinion piece in Indian Express, 'I need to speak up now', Sinha criticised Arun Jaitley over what he called the "mess the finance minister has made of the economy". 

The senior BJP leader said he would "fail in my national duty if I did not speak up even now against the mess the finance minister has made of the economy." 

Sinha, a former finance minister in prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government, who has been sidelined in the party, claimed a revival by the time of the next Lok Sabha election was "highly unlikely" and a "hard landing" appeared inevitable. 

Sinha pointed out that the growth rate of 5.7 per cent was actually 3.7 per cent or less by the old method of calculation. He attributed the misleading growth rate to the government's decision to change the methodology for calculation of the GDP  in 2015 as a result of which the growth rate recorded earlier increased statistically by over 200 basis points on an annual basis.  
 
In a series of Twitter posts, senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram asked the government to admit that Yashwant Sinha was speaking the truth. 

"Will Power now admit the Truth that economy is sinking?" the former finance minister wrote.  

Chidambaram asked the BJP government to respond to their senior party leader Yashwant Sinha's scathing attack on the central government's economic policies, particularly the "mess" that finance minister Arun Jaitley had made of the economy.