Demonetisation, GST: Amid economic chaos, Modi's New India vow looks shaky

Sangh parivar ideologues now openly concede that Modi and Jaitley may have thrown the baby out with the bath water

Suddenly, the BJP is feeling besieged by news of economic distress all around. After a badly botched up demonetisation exercise, we are seeing an equally botched up implementation of the GST which has sent small businesses into a tailspin, exacerbating the decline in output and employment seen during the months after demonetisation.

Trading companies were de-stocking before the start of the GST regime on July 1, 2017, in the hope that they would buy up fresh stocks under the new tax system. But given the messy implementation, analysts say the re-stocking process is quite slow and firms would rather wait