Data trap

Chhattisgarh posted the highest economic growth rate among states at 11.5 per cent. But the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) unexpectedly caused the Congress party state some embarrassment. Not because Chhattisgarh is BJP-ruled but because of Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress President Dhanendra Sahu’s knee-jerk opposition. Sahu termed the CSO report “fake”, saying the BJP-ruled state could not have achieved the growth rate the report claimed. The problem is, as party managers quickly reminded Sahu, the agency that had released the report is run by the central government headed by Congress. Sahu immediately asked his think-tanks to find new reasons to justify his opposition and earlier statement. Last heard, the poor managers were still scanning the data.