On Friday, Suresh Angadi, Union Minister of State for Railways, dismissed the criticism on the state of the economy, stating that “airports and trains are full and people are getting married” indicating that the country’s economy is “doing fine.”
During an inspection of the soon-to-be commissioned Tundla-Khurja section of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), while responding to a question from The Indian Express, Angadi said that “common people are happy” but some are trying to “damage the name” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on this issue.
“The state of the economy is very good. Airport full hai, koi seat nahin milta, railway station mein ticket nahin milta, woh full hai…Kisi ka shaadi nahin rukta hai, kisi ka kaam nahin rukta hai. (Airports are full, there is no seat available, tickets are not available at railway stations, they are full…no one’s wedding is called off, no one’s work is affected), he was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
“The common people…they are happier. Only few people are creating (the issue) to damage the name of (the) honourable PM, who is more popular in the world,” he added.
When asked about the GDP numbers plummeting to the lowest in eight years, he said that every economy naturally goes down every three years and it will be back on track soon. He went on to say that “monsoon is good, harvest is good.”
Last month, the Union Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, had also denied economic slump citing the box office collections of Bollywood movies that earned around 120 crores. “I was also told that on October 2, which is observed as one of the national holidays, three Hindi movies garnered Rs. 120 crore business on that day. Unless the economy is sound in the country how can only three movies collected so much business in a single day?” Prasad was quoted as saying by NDTV.
However, after his comments were widely criticized on social media, Prasad had to withdraw his statements.
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