BJP vs GDP

With demonetisation and GST coming in quick succession, the GDP numbers are floundering. And while that is understandable, given the size of both the exercises, what is amusing is the way the current ruling party is trying to prove that everything is hunky-dory. And what is even more amusing is when people who don't know the full-form of GDP are trying to explain why everything is fine with the economy. (By the way GDP, stands for Gross Domestic Product. More on that at the wiki page which can be found here)

Just today, I saw this post by a friend of mine.



Now one look at the chart, and you would think that the GDP growth under NDA has been doing much better than under the UPA. You would also be led to think that the maximum GDP growth under UPA has only been 6.1%.

Sadly, both these are not true. And that's because you are being shown, only a part of the entire picture. A half-truth, so to say. So, here's the bigger picture! (And this is data from the World Bank. You can scroll over for the numbers)




As you can see, India has experienced far higher economic growth during the UPA regime. And the GDP has gone down post 2015 and is still going down faster than Vivek Oberoi's career graph. This graph doesn't have the 2017 numbers which are even lower (hovering around 5.7% right now).

The BJP, by providing select excerpts of data is trying to cover up their failures. So even when everyone knows UPA was in power from 2004 to 2014, BJP chooses to show only the data from 2012, when the GDP growth was the lowest.

The short moral of the story is data can be made to tell, what you want it to tell. You just need to massage it enough.

Which also brings me to the next point, which I find a bit strange. Earlier, everyone used to be critical of the government. However, post-2014, Indians for some reason are lapping up every half-truth by the government. The current BJP has made the people love the government, sometimes blindly and unconditionally. Never have I seen a people so in love with the country's government.

Commendable job indeed! But not so great for the country's economy, it seems! But then that's the data speaking!!