Nationalism without economic growth is a hollow idea :

Senior Congress leader Sushmita Dev Monday lashed out at the BJP government at the Centre for the "economic mess" in the country, which she said, has pushed it towards financial emergency.

Dev, who is the president of All India Mahila Congress, also criticised the Centre over the recent snooping scandal and said the "authoritarian government has been caught red handed".

"Nationalism without economic growth is an hollow idea that will ultimately lead the nation to disaster," Dev told a press conference here.

"The economic policies of the BJP government since 2014 has ruined the Indian economy. The economic growth is at an all time low, unemployment is at an all time high. The Modi government is trying to deflect attention from the economic crisis. We won't allow them to do that," she said.

 

Claiming that economic slowdown dominated the elections in Haryana and Maharashtra, she said there is acute farmers distress and the rural economy is at an all time low.

The proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RECP) pact would be the "third jolt" to the country's economy after demonetisation and the flawed implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), Dev said.

"The RECP is facing increasing resistance from domestic industry and farmer groups who apprehend China will dump cheaper goods into India by using it," she said.

Speaking on the snooping row, Dev said the citizens, journalists and opposition leaders were spied upon in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election.

"When such incident of snooping happens, it is government which first initiates action. But in our country, the union government is just silent as it knows very well knows that it is the government which was involved in snooping," she said.

"The BJP government has been caught snooping," she added.

WhatsApp last week said Indian journalists and human rights activists were among those globally spied upon by unnamed entities using an Israeli spyware Pegasus, leading to a furore over breach of citizens' privacy.

Following the disclosure, the Indian government has asked the messaging platform to explain the matter and list the measures that have been taken by it to safeguard the privacy of millions of Indians.