Not Telangana, Modi's Rs 100 lakh cr debt burdening every Indian: KTR

HYDERABAD: An unrelenting Telangana Rashtra Samithi continued its offensive against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's claims and statements during her visit to Telangana. IT Minister Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao (KTR) led the state's befitting reply to Sitharaman's accusations on Telangana's borrowings and the per capita debt besides the tall claims of how robust the Indian economy is under the governance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

KTR was quick to latch on to the Union Finance Minister's claims during her press conference here on Saturday. Taking potshots at Sitharaman's big talk on fiscal prudence, he wondered how the NDA government would justify the country's total debts that registered an incremental increase by Rs 100 lakh crores during the last eight years of Modi's rule.

In a series of replies to his own tweet, the Telangana Minister reeled out statistical evidence to blow holes into Nirmala Sitharaman's allegations against the TRS government and the fiscal health of Telangana.

KTR's fact-based rebuttal came in response to the Union Finance Minister's utterances during her visit to Telangana which concluded on Saturday. In Hyderabad, she cited a Bloomberg report to claim that India was at zero-percent risk of falling into recession. She even claimed that India's GDP growth, though at a low base, was far better than that of many other developing countries.

Disagreeing with her claims, KTR tweeted: "Madam FM waxes eloquent on Fiscal prudence.

Till 2014, in 67 years 14 Prime Ministers of India together have raised a debt of ₹ 56 Lakh Crores

Then came PM Modi Ji; in the last 8 years alone India's debt incremented by ₹ 100 Lakh Crores Every Indian has a debt of ₹1.25 Lakh."

This ran straight in the face of Sitharaman's statement that every child born in Telangana carried a debt burden of Rs 1.25 lakh. Also, in one of his replies to his own tweet, he sought to suggest that the Union Finance Minister's statistical acumen was poor. He claimed that Telangana's per capita income in 2022 was almost double that of the national average. Even on the debt front, he said that the state's GSDP ratio of 23.5 per cent was not only less than half of nation's debt GDP ratio of 59 percent but also lowest at 23rd among 28 Indian states.

"Per capita income of Telangana in 2022 is ₹2.78 Lakh

National Average per capita income is ₹1.49 Lakh

Debt: GSDP ratio of Telangana is 23.5 % (lowest at 23rd among 28 Indian states)

Nation's Debt: GDP ratio is 59%"

In yet another reply, he squarely blamed the inefficiency of the BJP-ruled states which paled in front of Telangana's performance on the fiscal front. KTR also had a sarcastic prick to say that what the country needed was 'double impact' governance and not 'futile double engines'.

"#Telangana with 2.5% of Indian population contributes 5.0% to India's GDP (Source: RBI report, October 2021)

What the country needs is "Double Impact" governance, Not futile Double Engines

If only BJP states performed on par with Telangana, India would now be a $4.6TN Economy."

KTR's incisive yet thought-provoking tweet rebuttals also got a few others going hammer and tongs against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Putta Vishnuvardhan Reddy was one of them who demanded clarity on a few posers. He wanted to know why the Modi regime failed to reach its target of pegging the fiscal deficit at 3 per cent; why the GSDP debt shot up to 60 per cent, which is a marked 15-percent increase under Prime Minister Modi and also what were the compelling factors that forced the Modi government to secure a whopping Rs 100 lakh crore loans during its tenure.

"Madam FM @nsitharaman ji, would you please care to answer & justify

Why Fiscal Deficit target of 3% was never met by Modi Govt?

Why Debt to GSDP increased to~ 60% (an increase of 15% during Modi Regime)?

Why Rs.100 Lakh Cr loan was taken by the Modi Regime? #NPAGovt

Vishnuvardhan Reddy substantiated his argument with a table depicting the Centre's debt-to-GDP ratio starting from 2017-18 till the current fiscal year of 2022-23.

Nirmala Sitharaman's tirade against Telangana on the fiscal front appeared to have backfired badly with scores of netizens trolling her based on the statistical evidence provided by KTR and others.