New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS): With India's GDP growth in the first quarter of 2019-20 coming down to five per cent, many social media users rushed to blame demonetisation and speedy move towards a cashless economy as primary reasons for the slowdown.
After the GDP results were out on Friday, #BahiKhateMeinLocha and #BankMerger started trending on Twitter, with many users cautioning the government against the move to merge 10 PSU banks into four.
"India's #GDP growth has fallen to 5 per cent. But nothing to worry. Govt is working on new formula to calculate the GDP, to pump it up. Thanks to #DeMonetisation n poor implementation of #GST which brought our GDP super low," said one user.
Chairman of Mahindra Group, Anand Mahindra, who is an avid Twitter user, however, said that he continues to remain "steadfastly optimistic".
"Well this certainly ruined my Friday & will dampen the weekend. A lot of work to be done. But I remain steadfastly optimistic. Was pleased to see the bank consolidation announced by @nsitharaman," he said.
"A 'reform a week' is just the kind of tonic we need...," he added.
Some users also created memes showing a smiling face of of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a dejected look of current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"Bhakts stopped buying Parle G and underwear, so the GDP crashed to 4.9%. Is this how you show love to your master? #BahiKhateMeinLocha," read one sarcastic tweet.
"If everything is going good with #economy then why is the need to take money from #RBI that never been done before in such situation. The govt can't hold 2.7 trillion dollars economy, how they create 5 trillion. #EconomicSlowdown #EconomyGoneBJPMaun," wrote another user.
Some, however also mocked the Congress for earlier questioning the method of calculating GDP growth rate.
"India's GDP numbers are correct when they are less than 6%. And flawed when they are greater than 6%," wrote one user while attributing the quote to Rahul Gandhi in a bid to mock the Congress leader.
Some users tried to defend the government by saying that measures to root out corruption led to the temporary growth slowdown.