Govt enthusiastic about tax cuts for super rich but shows no concern for slowdown: Yechury

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Friday hit out at the Centre over reports that rural household consumption had slumped to a seven-year low, saying the "callous" government is enthusiastic about writing off unpaid loans of rich borrowers and tax cuts for the super-rich but shows no signs of concern over the slowdown.

Yechury said the signs of the agrarian distress and near-stagnant rural incomes have been there for long but the Modi government is busy with trying to "divide and polarise".

A media report said in the September quarter, rural India grew at five per cent in terms of value, sharply slower than 20 per cent reported in the year earlier. Urban India grew at eight per cent compared with 14 per cent in the year-ago period, he said.

"A callous Central government shows no signs of concern over the slowdown tumbling into a much graver problem. There is enthusiasm in Modi govt only for tax cuts for the super-rich and writing off unpaid loans of rich borrowers.

"The signs of the prolonged agrarian distress and near-stagnant rural incomes have been there for long. But this govt is busy with trying to divide and polarise," Yechury said in a tweet.

He further said that the government's policies have hurt all sections of society.

"Farmers, landless wage workers, workers in cities, youngsters, women looking for jobs, lakhs of sacked workers in auto, textiles and other sectors, industry workers, small entrepreneurs: its an endless list: Modi govt's policies have hurt all sections, except rich cronies," he tweeted.