BJP Vs Congress: ‘Not comparing apples with apples?’ Piyush Goyal hits back at Congress criticism of GDP numbers

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal hit out at Opposition leaders and former bureaucrats questioning India's 7.8 per cent GDP growth for the April-June 2026 quarter.

Goyal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s national treasurer, also accused the critics of comparing an old data series with a new one and describing them as "the only jobless people left".

“I see on TV some of the Opposition leaders, even possibly a former finance secretary or a former Reserve Bank of India governor, both of whom could not complete their tenure in India," Goyal said, speaking at the annual session of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA) in Delhi.

The 7.8 Q1 GDP growth in the April-June quarter beat analyst expectations, official data released on 31 August showed and far exceeded economists' projections.

Goyal was referring to criticism of GDP numbers by former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg. Rajan wondered if the numbers were real, while Garg claimed that the government revised last year's Q1 numbers retrospectively to show the latest Q1 growth in GDP numbers. Both Rajan and Garg quit before their due retirement from offices.

"Are these growth numbers real? Even the larger economy is in doubt if the growth numbers aren't real. There are some discrepancies which one has to worry about." Rajan told PTI.

“If we're growing so fast, why aren't we creating more jobs, more good jobs? And why is investment not taking place?” he asked.

Not even apples with apples: Goyal

Goyal accused the two of making false comparisons.

“They don't even know [that they should] compare apples with apples. They are trying to misguide the people of India, comparing growth rate [based on an] old series with a new series where the base year itself has changed,” Goyal added as quoted by NDTV.

India's economy grew at a faster-than-expected rate, showing resilience against concerns of an economic downturn over the US-Iran war, the latest numbers showed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has termed the GDP growth a "herculean feat".

Rijiju attacks Congress too

Union minister Kiren Rijiju also launched a scathing attack on the Congress party for questioning India's latest GDP numbers. The Bharatiya Janata Party leader asked if the opposition party was in a “state of deep intoxication” or had become "so swayed by their blind loathing of India's growth that they lost touch with ground reality".

Rijiju made the remarks in a post on X in reply to a post by the Kerala Congress, which said, "Nobody believes the fake story anymore. The world can see through the fakery."

The Kerala Congress also posted an image of a beer mug, showing the Indian economy as the actual liquid and the official GDP numbers as fizz.

"Is the Congress in a state of deep intoxication due to drinking too much beer or Congressmen are so swayed by their blind loathing of India's growth that they have lost touch with the ground reality?" Rijiju said.

What Subhash Chandra Garg said

The Congress party accused the Union government of using PR to ‘polish the picture.’ The Congress cited former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg's remarks on GDP numbers to attack the Modi government, saying it must understand that "PR can polish the picture" of GDP but not the economy itself.

Garg, a retired IAS officer, served as Economic Affairs Secretary, Finance Secretary and Power Secretary. He was Finance Secretary from 1 March 2019 to 26 July 2019.

Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, shared a video clip from an interview in which Garg ‘burst the bubble’ on the government's claim. Garg's assessment is that the real GDP growth is around 2.6%, not 7.8%, Ramesh said in the post.

Basically, Garg tried to highlight that MoSPI, which released the fresh data, retrospectively lowered Q1 FY2025-26 nominal GDP from about ₹86.05 trillion to ₹80.00 trillion, a reduction of roughly ₹6.05 trillion, with much of the production-side revision concentrated in services.

What Congress said

Garg's 2.6% calculation comes from comparing the old-vintage ₹86.05 trillion with the latest Q1 FY2026-27 nominal GDP of ₹88.27 trillion.

"Had you not revised last year's GDP, the growth in current prices would have been 2.6 per cent," Garg told a news channel.

In his post in Hindi on X, Ramesh said that no matter how much the Modi government "beats the drum of its fabricated GDP growth, conjured up through statistical jugglery by its team and media, its true reality will be exposed because what they are claiming is the complete opposite of ground realities".

The Congress has alleged that the 7.8 per cent GDP growth is "not an economic spring" and claimed it presents a "Greatly Distorted Picture" of the state of India's economy as it doesn't convey the "depressed" investment sentiment.

(With agency inputs)