PM slams critics of $5-tn economy

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, July 6

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today dismissed as “professional pessimists” the critics of the Centre’s target to achieve a $5-trillion economy in the next five years and asserted the “New India” is on the threshold of sprinting forward.

A day after the Union Budget was presented by Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman, the PM shared his views on the Budget at a function at the Deendayal Hastkala Sankul in his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi to launch the BJP’s membership drive on the occasion of the 118th birth anniversary of party ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee.

Modi said his government’s Budget for 2019-20 lays down a roadmap for nearly doubling the size of the Indian economy to $5 trillion in five years by raising per capita income, boosting consumption and increasing productivity.

Explaining the rationale for fixing the target of a $5-trillion economy, he quoted an English phrase “the size of the cake matters”. “Size of the cake matters. The larger the cake, larger pieces are what people will get. So we have set a target of making India a $5-trillion economy. Larger the size of the economy will be, the larger prosperity will it bring for the country,” he said.

Citing global examples, he said countries have leapfrogged from developing to developed status on the back of a jump in per capita income. “India can also do that. The target is not difficult,” he said.

Modi said some people are questioning the need for becoming a $5-trillion economy. “They are, what I call, professional pessimists. They are detached from the common man and if you go to them for a solution, they will put you in crisis,” he said, adding while there should be debate and criticism on ways and means of achieving the goal, questioning the target of building a $5 trillion economy is wrong.

“The country needs to be wary of these pessimists,” the PM said. Launching his party’s membership drive, he said it would further connect people from all walks of life with the saffron party.

(with PTI inputs)