Cong does a 'reality check' of Modi's growth story

The Congress on Wednesday came out with what it claimed to be a “reality check” of Gujarat, ostensibly to thwart the Bharatiya Janata Party’s bid to re-brand Narendra Modi as the development icon of the party, ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

To punch holes in the development saga that Modi is banking on to make his foray into national political arena, the ruling party fielded its leader in Gujarat state assembly, Shankersinh Vaghela, to present the “shockers” - the state never had two digit growth rate in the last 10 years, and that the claims of the state’s gross state domestic product growing at 10.2 per cent was a “dishonest” depiction of the facts.

 “Gujarat did not have continuous two digit growth of its gross state domestic product (GSDP) in the last ten years as claimed in the socio-economic review of the state for 2012-13. Ravindra Dholakia’s conclusion that the state’s GSDP grew at the rate of 10.2 per cent during 2000-01 to 2009-10, is not a true or honest depiction of facts, but essentially a fallacy,” the Congress leader alleged.

If the GSDP in 2009-10 (at constant 1999-2000 prices) was compared with that of a normal year near that period, the compound annual growth rate till the end of 2009-10 would come to only 7.89 per cent.