India PM Modi defends handling of COVID pandemic amid opposition protests

New Delhi: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended his government’s efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic over the last two years, saying on Tuesday they led to high economic growth and middling inflation, unlike the situation in some advanced economies.

Economic growth is estimated at 9.2% in India’s fiscal year ending in March and at 8% to 8.5% the next, after a contraction of 6.6% in fiscal 2019/20, while retail inflation hovers around 5.5%, well within the central bank’s target of 2% to 6%.

The government has distributed free foodgrain to 800 million people during the pandemic, while taking steps to tame inflation, Modi told the upper house of parliament in remarks that triggered an opposition boycott of his speech.

“I want to assure everyone that while the pandemic lasts, we will protect the poor,” Modi said, as he accused opposition parties of creating panic about the impact of the pandemic.

India’s COVID-19 death toll crossed 504,000 on Wednesday, a level some analysts said was breached last year, but was obscured by inaccurate surveys and unaccounted dead in rural areas, where millions remain vulnerable to the disease.

Despite the pandemic, India’s economy was growing at the fastest pace among major economies, while manufacturing incentives helped bolster growth, Modi said.

“We have moved further on the growth path,” he said, adding that the government had offered financial incentives for domestic manufacturing, and helped spearhead a push by small and medium businesses into critical sectors such as defence.

Opposition criticism of Modi’s handling of the pandemic highlighted that India slipped last year to 101 among 116 nations on the Global Hunger Index, from a previous ranking of 94, while many people faced difficulties.

P. Chidambaram, a senior leader of the main opposition Congress party, blamed government policies for a rise in inflation and loss of jobs during the pandemic, besides widening income inequalities.

“Welfare has been thrown to the wind,” the former finance minister told parliament, while accusing the government of supporting a few favourite industrialists, at a time when nearly 46 million people, of a population of nearly 1.4 billion, had been pushed into extreme poverty.

“India’s economy has not recovered yet to the level in the pre-pandemic year of 2019/20,” he added.

Tirade against Congress 

Modi, mneanwhile, continued his tirade against Congress, reiterating his oft repeated point of how dynastic parties are the biggest threat to democracy and suggested the grand old party to change its middle name from ‘national’ to ‘federal’.

In reply to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s speech, Modi continued his barbs against Congress as he had done on Monday in the Lower House of Parliament.

After stating how Congress had doubted the country’s ability to deliver on vaccination for all, welfare measures for the poor by his government etc, Modi said in a direct attack on Congress how one can never learn lessons in a democracy from “those who trampled over democracy in 1975.”

“When one family prevails over others in a political party, it is the political talent that suffers. Dynastic politics is the biggest threat to our democracy. I would suggest all parties, especially starting with Congress, to let go of dynastic politics,” Modi said.

Recalling remarks by Congress leaders, Modi said some members asked, if there was no Congress, what would happen? and went on a longish tirade: “I would like to state, if there was no Congress, there would have been no Emergency. If there was no Congress, there would have been no caste politics. If there had been no Congress, there would have been no Sikh massacre. If there was no Congress, Kashmiri Pundits would not have been thrown out of their homes.”

Modi took on the word ‘federalism’ as mentioned by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his speech in the Parliament and said: “People talk of federalism, but they have forgotten, when Congress was in power, they did not allow India’s development. Now when they are in opposition, they are obstructing development.”

Continuing with the pronoun ‘they’ (Woh in Hindi as the Prime Minister spoke in Hindi) without taking any particular person’s name, Modi said, “Now they are objecting to the idea of nation. If they find the very idea of ‘nation’ as unconstitutional, why is their party called Indian National Congress? Why not change ‘national’ to ‘federal’?”

Earlier on Monday in the Lok Sabha, PM Modi had launched a scathing attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party stating that the party had not lost its arrogance even when it had been out of power for so long. He also said that Congress seems to have decided to not come back to power for 100 years, and he too is prepared for it.