‘Tokenism, No Mention of Job’: Twitter Dissects FM’s Announcements

Amid much speculation over an economic slowdown, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday, 23 August, finally addressed the media, announcing a slew of measures.

She presented as many as 32 slides, divided into what she called six ‘silos’ for various sectors, and many on Twitter responded by suggesting that the measures were too little given the crisis.

Congress took to the micro-blogging site to highlight that the finance minister did not mention anything about jobs.

"Pre-budget position has been restored" - Finance Minister @nsitaraman.

Essentially, the FM has back tracked on several provisions presented in her maiden budget. Only thing that remained the same: no mention of job creation then, no mention today either.#EconomyGoneBJPMaun

— Congress (@INCIndia) August 23, 2019

In two other tweets, the party also pointed out that Sitharaman missed a point by comparing India’s GDP growth rate to that of China and the US and that the then UPA government’s policies steered India’s economy safely during the 2008 recession.

India is in dire need of an FM with a basic understanding of economics.
Our growth rate may be higher than US & China, but they are a $21 trill & $14.8 trill economies respectively, we are $2.8 trill. You cannot make a growth rate comparison without looking at base levels.

— Congress (@INCIndia) August 23, 2019

FM says India's economy is down because of global situation - convienently ignoring the simeoultaneous destruction by Demonetisation & GST.

She may have also forgotten that in 2008 during the global recession, our economy remained stable because of Dr. Manmohan Singh's policies

— Congress (@INCIndia) August 23, 2019

A few other Twitter users pointed out the inconsistencies in the government’s policy- making.

"I can't breathe!"

Govt:
"Here, Take Carbon Monoxide, it'll help!"

When nearly blue, comatose,

Govt:
"Okay, now lemme stop the Carbon Monoxide I was giving you. That should help!"

Govt:
"Am I not brilliant?"

— Prasanna (@Flyfiddlesticks) August 23, 2019

State of Indian Media:

1. @arunjaitley says banks will not be recapitalised until they meet stringent performance based criteria.

Media: clap clap clap. Whataygenius!

2. @nsitharaman 70,000 crores will be given upfront.

Media: clap, clap, clap. Whataygenius.

— SonaliRanade (@sonaliranade) August 23, 2019

And others pointed out that the steps initiated by the government on Friday amount only to ‘tokenism’.

No acknowledgement of the serious structural problems that have led to this slowdown. React on issues important to a few partisan influencers on social media.The super rich will not be using this money to buy more toothpaste. It's the poor who spend a large part of their income. https://t.co/Qt9kXqAZgB

— Professional Pessimist 🙂 (@rupasubramanya) August 23, 2019

The measures announced by FM @nsitharaman today will likely bring some relief to auto makers, partially improve liquidity for NBFCs n temporarily boost the stock market. Beyond that, most of what she said bordered on tokenism, of little help to fix the economy's structural crisis

— Rajesh Mahapatra (@rajeshmahapatra) August 23, 2019

The big question is how the rural economy will revive.. it is so dependent on Cash Flow & that has stopped #NirmalaSitharaman https://t.co/dduFBzf471

— Nishant Chaturvedi (@nishantchat) August 23, 2019