Sensex crash: Congress says Modi steered economy into crisis

As Sensex crashed 807 points to drop below 23,000-mark, its lowest level in 21 months, Congress today accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of steering the economy "into a crisis".

"PM Modi Government is an example of how not to manage a nation's economy," the party said in a commentary.

Noting that Modi came to power promising a new dawn for India, it said that he travelled the world telling everyone that he was the "messiah" to lead India in the 21st century.

"For a while people were swayed by his rhetoric and the Sensex too jumped... Over 21 months later, Prime Minister Modi has steered the Indian economy into a crisis," it said in the commentary posted on its website.

It claimed that for the first time, the Indian government's GDP data - arrived at through "questionable methods" by the Modi regime - are perplexing economists across the world.

"And now, with the market sentiment down, the Sensex and Nifty are staring down at a bear market," it said adding that the Sensex is currently trading at 22,951 and the Nifty at 6,976.

The party said that this is well below the 24,716 levels seen when Modi became the prime minister. The index is already down 3.7 per cent for the week, heading for its biggest weekly fall since a 4.5 per cent fall in the first week of 2016.

Besides, it noted that shares of public sector banks have plunged by 12.4 per cent as investor sentiment was hit by mounting bad loans and disappointing earnings.

Detailing the problem faced by the economy, it said that in the current month itself, Rs 27,000 crore has been pulled out of Indian equities. Fund managers say slowing domestic institutional flows in the past two months have made it difficult for markets to stabilise, unlike the second half of 2015.

It accused the Prime Minister of systematically undermining all the good work done by the previous UPA government led by Manmohan Singh.

"From destroying the various welfare schemes that empowered the poor, to profiteering from the historic low prices of crude, PM Modi Government is an example of how not to manage a nation's economy," it added.

Congress attack came on a day when the market benchmark Sensex crashed 807 points to drop below 23,000-mark, its lowest level in 21 months, on concerns over global economy and mounting bad loans as also weak quarterly earnings of state-run bank The rupee today plummeted by 45 paise to end at an over 29-month low of 68.30 a dollar on fresh demand for the US currency from banks and importers in view of sharp fall in equities amid foreign capital outflows.