In a sharp retort to former finance minister P Chidambaram over his remarks that India will become the third largest economy in the world no matter who becomes the prime minister, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday countered his claim and asked why the country’s ranking in terms of GDP grew up by just two ranks during 2004-2014.
As per reports, Chidambaram had said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “turning an arithmetic inevitability into a guarantee”.
“Narendra Modi is a master of exaggeration. He is turning an arithmetical inevitability into a guarantee. It is inevitable that India will become the third largest economy in the world (in terms of GDP).”
“In 2004, India’s GDP was at 12th place. In 2014, it rose to seventh place. In 2024, it was the fifth largest. No matter who the prime minister is, the GDP will become the third largest in the world. There is no magic in it. It is an arithmetic inevitability given the size of our population,” Chidambaram, who served as the Union finance minister four times, said.
Reacting to the Congress leader’s remarks, “Arithmetic inevitability, but my time (Congress time) it (the economy) went up and down and up and down, and in 10 years I could manage to bring it up by about two ranks only. In ten years, Modi showed it can jump five ranks, and within two more, probably, it will go up to third rank,” Sitharaman said while speaking at a Viksit Bharat Ambassador – Campus Dialogue, held at GITAM University in Visakhapatnam.
“So it is a constant fight against forces which are undermining us — the people of India.”
She termed the “arithmetic inevitability” remarks as “misleading” and explained her rationale.
“Before 2014, ten years was completely a lost decade, because of bad policies, looking the other way when massive corruption was happening, the economy had literally gone down where it was back in 2004,” she claimed.
India’s GDP is currently ranked 5th, after the US, China, Germany, and Japan.