New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday took on 108 economists who had questioned the credibility of official data last week. He said "70% of these so-called economists are compulsive contrarians", a term he had coined to thrash opponents of the Narendra Modi government earlier.

On a video released on Twitter, Jaitley said, "When the economy is growing on various fronts, how can one argue that jobs are not being created?"

Saying that 108 "so-called economists" had questioned the validity of official data a few days ago, the finance minister said they are critics of the government who have signed multiple memorandums against it in the last five years.

Most of these memorandums are on issues of politics and not economics, he emphasised.

"As against this, credible international institutions like the IMF and the World Bank have always accepted our data," he said.

Also read: 108 Economists, Social Scientists Raise Red Flags Over Interference in Data Estimation

He said these economists believed the Indian economy has not created jobs, which is a myth.

To validate his point, he said infrastructure growth in this government has been the fastest.

He said this government builds 10,000 km of highways every year, has electrified every village, provided sanitation to every home, built houses, created urban infrastructure at unprecedented growth of metros, fly overs, roads.

"When the construction industry grows by 10%, when the electronics industry where we essentially relied on imports is today having a monumental growth as far as India is concerned and lastly huge infrastructure is being created in rural areas, in urban areas, manufacturing is going up in various sectors, the economy is the fastest growing, a fake campaign (has been launched) that all this growth does not create jobs. I think nothing could be further from truth," he said, countering the economists.

On Thursday last, a group of 108 economists and social scientists called upon their colleagues from across the ideological spectrum to impress upon the government, irrespective of the party in power, “to restore access and integrity to public statistics, and re-establish institutional independence and integrity to the statistical organisations”.

“The national and global reputation of India’s statistical bodies is at stake. More than that, statistical integrity is crucial for generating data that would feed into economic policy-making and that would make for honest and democratic public discourse,” the economists said in an official statement.

They said that it was imperative that agencies associated with the collection and dissemination of statistics like the Central Statistical Office and the National Sample Survey Organisation not be subject to political interference.

The signatories included prominent economists and social scientists like Abhijit Banerjee, Pranab Bardhan, Jean Dreze, James Boyce, Jayati Ghosh, Amartya Lahiri, Sudha Narayanan, Ashima Sood, Jayan Jose Thomas, Vamsi Vakulabharanam and others.

Economists statement:

“Lately, the Indian statistics and the institutions associated with it have however come under a cloud for being influenced and indeed even controlled by political considerations. In fact, any statistics that cast an iota of doubt on the achievement of the government seem to get revised or suppressed on the basis of some questionable methodology.”

Jaitley's counter:

"A few days ago, 108 so-called economists issued a statement questioning its (official data's) validity. I analysed those economists and found out that 70 per cent of them are compulsive contrarians, critics of the government who have signed multiple memorandums against this government in the last five years. Most of these memorandums are on the issues of politics and not economics."

This article was first published on Business Standard. Read the original here. 

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