Congress’s criticism of GDP figures is a ‘dimagi Naxal’ mindset: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday (September 3, 2026) accused the Congress of using faulty calculations to convert India’s 7.8% real GDP growth into an “imaginary” 2.6%, terming it a “dimagi Naxal” mindset.

The rebuttal came after Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh asked why GDP estimates for all four years since 2022-23 had been revised substantially downwards, what components of the new methodology had driven the changes, who had been consulted in framing it, and why the deflator used for calculating real GDP appeared to understate the impact of inflation.

The questions were raised days after the government highlighted 7.8% real GDP growth in the April-June 2026 quarter.

In response, BJP chief spokesperson Anil Baluni told PTI , “Jairam Ramesh’s entire three-page statement rests on comparing two numbers that cannot be compared. Everything built upon that error collapses with it.”

He said: “If India grows slowly, it declares the government a failure. If India grows rapidly, it declares the data fraudulent. If economic indicators improve, it searches for one weak number. If the arithmetic refuses to support its politics, it simply changes the arithmetic.”

“That is the ‘dimagi Naxal’ mindset: an inability to accept Indian achievement, accompanied by a constant urge to diminish it, discredit it and damage the confidence of Indians themselves,” he said.

The latest example was the attempt to convert India’s 7.8% real GDP growth in Q1 FY2026-27 into an “imaginary” 2.6%, and then into “basically zero”, the BJP MP said.

“The trick is: take last year’s GDP from the old, discontinued 2011-12-base series. Compare it with this year’s GDP from the new 2022-23-base series. Divide one by the other. Call the resulting number India’s “real growth”. Then subtract household inflation from it,” said Mr. Baluni.

Citing data, Mr. Baluni said rebasing did not begin with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure. “This is not the first time India has revised its GDP base year. It is the ninth such revision since Independence. Between 1956 and 1999 alone, five revisions were carried out, and in total five revisions took place when Congress was in power at the Centre,” he said.

“Were those revisions intended to mask structural stagnation, low productivity, and slow expansion of the Indian economy between the 1950s and early 1990s? The truth is that base revisions are routine statistical exercises undertaken to improve accuracy and reflect structural changes in the economy,” said Mr. Baluni.

He said the Congress’s arguments about the reduction of ₹43 lakh crore in the estimated size of the economy were “statistical theatre” and “slogan”.

“…MoSPI has not concealed the reduction. It published old-series and new-series comparisons, sector-wise changes and detailed explanations for them,” he said, adding that a negative manufacturing deflator did not mean prices fell. “Manufacturing and consumption did not contract. The claim that manufacturing contracted by 5.2% and private consumption fell by 5.4% repeats the same cross-series mistake,” he added.

Mr. Baluni accused the Congress of misusing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rating, saying the IMF’s 2025 assessment did assign India’s national accounts a C rating, but it did not declare the country’s GDP growth data fraudulent as the Congress was presenting it.