New Delhi, Sept. 2 -- The Congress on Wednesday cited former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg's reported remarks on GDP numbers to attack the Modi government, saying it must understand that "PR can polish the picture" of the GDP but not the economy itself.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared a video clip of Garg in which he stated that by revising last year's GDP by as much as Rs 6 trillion, the current year's GDP in the first quarter has gone up by around 10.3 per cent.

"If you had not revised last year's GDP,

the growth in current prices would have been 2.6 per cent," Garg told a news channel.

In his post in Hindi on X, Ramesh said that no matter how much the Modi government beats the drum of its fabricated GDP growth, conjured up through statistical jugglery by its team and media, its true reality will be exposed because what they

are claiming is the complete opposite of ground realities.

"Former Finance Secretary Subhash Garg has now burst the bubble on this claim. His assessment is that the real GDP growth is around 2.6 per cent, not 7.8 per cent," Ramesh said.

"We want the economy to truly be strong, but the path to a strong economy doesn't come from embellishing numbers fabricated on a foundation of lies - it comes from accepting the truth," the Congress leader said.

"The Modi government must understand: PR can polish the picture of GDP, but not the economy itself," the Congress general secretary said.

Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera also lashed out at the Modi government over Garg's remarks.

"Subhash Garg has punctured the government's tall claims of 7.8 per cent GDP growth, arguing that India's real GDP growth is closer to 2.6 per cent. His contention is even more damning: the previous year's GDP growth was revised downward, making this year's growth rate look stronger by comparison," Khera said on X.

His assessment seems far closer to the lived reality of ordinary Indians - rising prices, falling purchasing power, shrinking disposable incomes and savings, stagnant job opportunities, and rising household debt, he said.

"These claims cannot simply be dismissed. They come from someone who served as Finance and Economic Affairs Secretary of the Government of India under Modi between 2017 and 2019," Khera said.

"The government now owes the country a clear explanation: Why were last year's GDP numbers revised downward? Why is it fudging numbers? What is the real GDP growth?" he said.

The Congress on Tuesday termed the latest GDP numbers released by the government as "statistical gymnastics" and said the Make in India initiative has achieved very little but the Modi government's signature "Fake in India" scheme continues unabated.

Attacking the Congress for questioning India's GDP numbers, Union minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday asked if the Opposition party was in a "state of deep intoxication" or had become "so swayed by their blind loathing of India's growth that they lost touch with ground reality".

Rijiju made the remarks in a post on X in reply to a post by Kerala Congress, which said, "Nobody believes the fake story anymore.

The world can see through the fakery."

The Kerala Congress also posted an image of a beer mug showing the Indian economy as the actual liquid and the official GDP numbers as fizz.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.