The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday (September 3, 2026) accused the Congress of using faulty calculations to convert India’s 7.8% real GDP growth into an “imaginary” 2.6%, terming it a “dimagi Naxal” mindset.
The rebuttal came after Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh asked why GDP estimates for all four years since 2022-23 had been revised substantially downwards, what components of the new methodology had driven the changes, who had been consulted in framing it, and why the deflator used for calculating real GDP appeared to understate the impact of inflation.
Everything built upon that error collapses with it. If India grows rapidly, it declares the data fraudulent. If economic indicators improve, it searches for one weak number. If the arithmetic refuses to support its politics, it simply changes the arithmetic. Citing data, Mr. “This is not the first time India has revised its GDP base year. It is the ninth such revision since Independence.
The questions were raised days after the government highlighted 7.8% real GDP growth in the April-June 2026 quarter. Between 1956 and 1999 alone, five revisions were carried out, and in total five revisions took place when Congress was in power at the Centre,” he said.
In response, BJP chief spokesperson Anil Baluni told PTI , “Jairam Ramesh’s entire three-page statement rests on comparing two numbers that cannot be compared. He said: “If India grows slowly, it declares the government a failure. “That is the ‘dimagi Naxal’ mindset: an inability to accept Indian achievement, accompanied by a constant urge to diminish it, discredit it and damage the confidence of Indians themselves,” he said. Baluni said rebasing did not begin with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure. He said the Congress’s arguments about the reduction of ₹43 lakh crore in the estimated size of the economy were “statistical theatre” and “slogan”.
