In a veiled attack on the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday claimed that India has been locked into a cycle of low investment since 2024 due to “erratic policy and rampant cronyism” of the ruling dispensation.

Ramesh, who is the Congress general secretary in charge of Communications, said, “The single most important statistic that explains India’s inability to grow faster since 2014 is the sluggish investment rate. India has been locked into a cycle of low investment since 2014, due to a combination of erratic policy, rampant cronyism, and the ED/IT/CBI raid raj.”

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Stating that low investment levels drag down the medium and long-term Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates, which in turn drags down wages and consumption growth, he said, “The biggest component of investment, private domestic investment, has been in the doldrums since 2014.”

Referring to the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the Congress MP said, “It was solidly in the 25-30 per cent of GDP range during Dr Manmohan Singh’s tenure. Under the self-declared divinity (of the incumbent government), it has been squarely in the 20-25 per cent of GDP range.”

“Gross Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as per cent of GDP has also more or less stayed constant since 2014. This is, however, only part of the story. Since at least 2016, multinational companies across the world have been looking to divest from China and invest in other developing countries. India, with a large and growing labour pool, was at the right place at the right time but this generational opportunity to garner FDI and become a manufacturing and export-oriented economy has been squandered,” he said.

Ramesh further said, “Countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam have walked away with the benefits. Sops like corporate tax cuts and PLIs can’t compensate for a freer society, polity, and economy – one that is free from demonetisation-like masterstrokes, cronyism, and raid raj. What India needs is not marginal policy tinkering, but a new, liberalised approach to political economy.”