Indian economy, a man-made catastrophe: P Chidambaram

The Congress on Wednesday attacked the BJP government over the state of the economy, with party leader P Chidambaram saying that the second quarter of 2019-20 will be catastrophic.

Party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has for the first time admitted that there is recession in the economy.

"After the failure of the Ola-Uber theory and the film hit theory, the finance minister has now made an admission about the recession. For the first time yesterday, she felt there is a recession. Let's wake up when we do," she said in a tweet in Hindi.

Chidambaram said that in two weeks, the country will know how catastrophic the second quarter of 2019-20 has been for the economy.

"And when the catastrophe is known, please remember it is a man-made catastrophe. We will go below 5 per cent, the question is how much lower," he said on Twitter.

The Congress leader is lodged in Tihar jail and has asked his family to tweet this on his behalf.

Party leader Jairam Ramesh also tweeted, "SBI research has forecast July-September 2019 GDP growth at 4.2 pc, the lowest in past 8 years. Moreover, since Jan-Mar 2017, GDP growth has fallen steadily every quarter."

"The nation wants to know: how many more quarters will this continue," he asked.