PM Modi’s new year resolutions nothing short of ‘jumlas’ destroying lives of people: Kharge-OxBig News Network

Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge. File
| Photo Credit: ANI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s annual new year resolutions have been nothing short of jumlas (rhetoric) that have been “destroying the lives of every citizen”, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said on Thursday (January 2, 2025).

Stepping up its attack on the government’s handling of the economy, the Congress also said that the Modi government has earned the “dubious distinction” of being the only government in Independent India that is responsible for ‘stealing’ mangalsutras of women due to rise in default on gold loans in the country.

“The Modi government has no solution for the economic turmoil it has created! Seven indicators that illustrate the extent of mess in the lives of ordinary Indians. 50% increase in gold loans and 30% jump in gold loan NPAs. Private consumption – the total value of goods and services purchased by households has slowed down in the last 8 quarters and has not recovered to pre-COVID levels,” Mr. Kharge said in a post on X, citing seven indicators to argue his points.

The Congress chief said car sales growth has plunged to a four-year low and wages have grown at a compound annual rate of just 0.8% in the engineering, manufacturing, process, and infrastructure (EMPI) sectors in the past 5 years (2019-2023). Food inflation, he added, has averaged 7.1% over the last eight quarter and indirect taxation in the form of GST on essential items are depleting household savings which are at a 50-year low.

“Household financial liabilities are now 6.4% of GDP — the highest in decades. Rupee has hit all-time low, forcing foreign fund outflows and loss to small investors worth lakhs of crores. Narendra Modi ji, Your annual ‘New Year Resolutions’ have been nothing short of ‘jumlas’ destroying the lives of every citizen,” Mr. Kharge alleged.

In a separate post on X, Congress general secretary (communication) Jairam Ramesh said, “At a time when the non-biological PM was scaremongering about some imagined plot to steal Mangalsutras, we had raised the issue of the rapid rise in gold loans during his tenure. An estimated ₹3-lakh crore in gold loans have been taken out by Indian families and are outstanding as of today. It now emerges that with rising indebtedness and a slowing economy, families are increasingly defaulting on these gold loans”.

The Congress leader said the proportion of gold loan NPAs (non performing assets) rose 30%, from ₹5,149 crore to ₹6,696 crore in the three months between March and June 2024. “And these are just the formal sector gold loans – there’s no estimate of how many families have taken recourse to the informal sector,” he said.

Mr. Ramesh said that when families default on these loans, they often lose the underlying gold asset – in most cases, the woman’s jewellery, including the mangalsutra.

“The Modi government’s rampant cronyism, erratic policymaking, and warped priorities have earned it the dubious distinction of being the only Government in the history of Independent India to steal mangalsutras from women,” Mr. Ramesh added.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also said according to the RBI, the income of Indian families is continuously decreasing and the number of borrowers is increasing.