Congress hits out at Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi: Hitting out at Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for attributing the slowdown in the automobile sector to the "mindset of millennials", Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, "blame everyone but the BJP's handling of the economy".

"Yes..that's great. Blame the voters..blame everyone but BJP's handling of the economy Mrs Finance Minister," Abhishek Singhvi tweeted. The Finance Minister had said the slowdown in auto sales was due to various factors such as the change in the mindset of millennials who prefer taking an Ola or Uber than committing to buying an automobile.

"Automobiles in particular and the components together have been affected by several things, inclusive of BS-VI movement, inclusive of that registration fee-related matter.

Some studies do tell us the mindset of the millennials who are now preferring not to commit an EMI towards buying automobiles but would consider taking (cab aggregators) Ola, Uber and everything else or take the Metro," Sitharaman said at an event in Chennai.

Taking a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise of making India a $5 trillion economy, Singhvi said, "Modi ji's Twitter followers have crossed 50 million. Economy will cross 5 trillion (dollars), but how? Youths are not getting jobs, will you hold opposition responsible for this too. Uber, Ola have ruined everything."

"Whatever good has happened, has been done by us (Modinomics). Whatever bad has happened, has been done by others (Nirmalanomics). Then, why have people elected you? (Publiconomics)," he further said in another tweet.

BJP defends Finance Minister

BJP sought to defend Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for saying millenials were averse to EMIs and their preference for Uber and Ola were the major reasons for the slump in automobile sector.

Party Vice President Baijayant Panda told ANI that emergence of cab services did impact the automobile industry as millennials found shared mobility convenient. "Two things here -- First, Congress is not in a position to talk about the economy.

When Vajpayee government ended, because of a lot of difficult reforms, it ended with a growth rate of 9 per cent and inflation of 4.5 per cent. When UPA government took over, during the first term they continued to be benefited from the momentum of the Vajpayee era. They did not bring any reforms," Panda said.