Taking a fresh swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the economic slowdown, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said "the train of a recession was coming full throttle". Referring to a media report that claimed the country's economic slowdown was showing no signs of abating and dubbing Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as "incompetent", Rahul said the economy has derailed. "Mr. PM, The economy has derailed and there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel. If your incompetent FM is telling you there is light, trust me it’s the train of a recession coming at full throttle," he tweeted. Rahul's attack comes amid growth in the core sectors of India’s economy dropping since May, slowing to 0.2 per cent in June — a near four-year low, according to analysts. Overall growth has been hit by a drop in production in crude oil, cement, refinery products and natural gas, according to data shared by the Commerce Ministry. Core sector growth for May was also revised downward to 4.3 per cent from 5.1 per cent earlier. On Wednesday, Gandhi claimed that it was the "callous attitude" of the Central government in rolling out GST and demonetisation that had sent the Indian economy to the brink of meltdown. "Demonetisation and GST rollout are perfect examples of ineptitude and lack of depth in the Modi Government. Their callous attitude has sent the Indian economy in tailspin and has brought it to the brink of a meltdown," he posted on the micro-blogging site. Growth of the country’s eight core sectors — coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity — is a lead indicator of the monthly industrial performance. These sectors had grown by 7.8 per cent in June 2018, and their cumulative growth during the 2018-19 financial year was 4.4 per cent. The growth in April was recorded at 6.3 per cent — the highest so far this fiscal.
