GDP not Bible or Mahabharat, won't be important in future: BJP MP

The 'new theory' is whether sustainable economic welfare reaches the last man in the queue, said BJP MP Nishikant Dubey

After the Congress targeted the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Parliament over sliding GDP (gross domestic product), a BJP leader said GDP would cease to be relevant in the future. What would be important is whether people are happy, the BJP’s Nishikant Dubey (pictured) said in the Lok Sabha on Monday. “GDP came in 1934; there was no GDP before that. (Nobel-winning economist Simon) Kuznets said it was not the ultimate truth to believe GDP as the Bible, Ramayan, or Mahabharat,” he explained. The “new theory” is whether sustainable economic welfare reaches the last man in the queue, he added.

Missing the wood for the trees?

The cold war between Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister Umang Singhar and Additional Chief Secretary (Forest) A P Shrivastava is affecting routine work in the department. Files have piled up on officials’ tables over the past month or so. Those related to the promotion and posting of departmental officers have not been cleared. That’s one reason many officers of the Indian Forest Service are said to be exploring greener pastures. As many as 16 of them have applied for deputation in other departments as well as at the Centre. The rift between Singhar and Shrivastava became public when the minister recommended an Economic Offences Wing enquiry into an alleged plantation scam under the previous government. Shrivastava was not convinced about the need for it.

Virtual war

The recent barrage of tweets by opposition leaders, mainly Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, targeting the UP government, has unsettled the powers that be. Taking up the cudgels on behalf of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya has suggested that Yadav and Vadra change their names and add the prefix Twitter — “Twitter Yadav” and “Twitter Vadra”, respectively — for regularly using the platform to further their political agenda.