The Congress on Friday doubled down on the claim that the Indian economy “has been well and truly devastated by a series of five” shocks “inflicted” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a day after Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said that US President Donald Trump was right in calling India a dead economy.

“Over the past decade, the Indian economy has been well and truly devastated by a series of five Modi-inflicted shocks. Nobody else can be held responsible,” Jairam Ramesh, communications in charge of the Congress, wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter)

“Demonetisation completely disrupted our growth momentum and destroyed the livelihoods of crores of Indians,” he wrote.

“A fundamentally flawed GST--that is a Tax that is neither Good nor Simple--has wreaked havoc on thousands of business enterprises across the country, except the large companies who can afford to pay the cost associated with GST compliance.

“Record imports from China have led to the closure of lakhs of MSMEs across the country--in Gujarat alone, around a third of the MSMEs in the stainless steel industry have shut down their operations. Exports in key areas are dependent on imports of raw materials, components, and intermediates from China,” Ramesh wrote.

“Private investment has lost the buoyancy it demonstrated during 2004-14. Indian industrialists are acquiring citizenship of other countries in an ever increasing measure. The politically motivated and extortionist Raid Raj, coupled with the proliferation of Modani's tentacles, has led to a loss of confidence in the Indian economy.

“Wages for the majority of Indians have stagnated in the last decade, across sectors and across classes. This is particularly so in rural India. Household savings have fallen sharply just as household debt has ballooned. Private mass consumption, one of the key drivers of growth, is sputtering just as luxury consumption has not ebbed, clearly pointing to sharpening economic inequalities,” Ramesh wrote.

He signed off with: “The Modi Govt, its drumbeaters and cheerleaders are living in a make-believe world. They are being economical with the truth of the real state of the economy.”