Mounting a stinging attack on the government over the resignation of two members of the National Statistical Commission, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday said one more venerable institution had “died”.
Mounting a stinging attack on the government over the resignation of two members of the National Statistical Commission, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday said one more venerable institution had “died”.
Chidambaram, who has been vehemently criticising the government over its alleged interference in the working of institutions like the CBI and RBI, blamed the government’s “malicious negligence” for the sudden resignation of NSC Acting chief P C Mohanan and J V Meenakshi, Professor at the Delhi School of Economics.
“One more venerable institution died on 29 January 2019 owing to malicious negligence by the government. May the NSC rest in peace until it is re-born again!” Chidambaram tweeted.
Mohanan and Meenakshi, who were appointed in the NSC in June 2017 and had a three-year term, quit in protest over the withholding of the NSSO’s (National Sample Survey Organisation) first Annual Survey on Employment and Unemployment for 2017-18. This report was expected to reflect job losses in the wake of demonetisation.
The former Union finance minister also raked up the issue of GDP back series data, whose release was stalled by the NITI Aayog. The exercise by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) had led to an upward revision in growth rates for the UPA years following a change in the base year from 2004-05 to 2011-12.
“We mourn the death of the National Statistical Commission and remember with gratitude its valiant fight to release untainted GDP data and employment data,” Chidambaram said in another tweet.
At present, NSC’s ex-officio member Amitabh Kant, who is the Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog, is the only person at the helm.
Chidambaram, who has been vehemently criticising the government over its alleged interference in the working of institutions like the CBI and RBI, blamed the government’s “malicious negligence” for the sudden resignation of NSC Acting chief P C Mohanan and J V Meenakshi, Professor at the Delhi School of Economics.
“One more venerable institution died on 29 January 2019 owing to malicious negligence by the government. May the NSC rest in peace until it is re-born again!” Chidambaram tweeted.
Mohanan and Meenakshi, who were appointed in the NSC in June 2017 and had a three-year term, quit in protest over the withholding of the NSSO’s (National Sample Survey Organisation) first Annual Survey on Employment and Unemployment for 2017-18. This report was expected to reflect job losses in the wake of demonetisation.
The former Union finance minister also raked up the issue of GDP back series data, whose release was stalled by the NITI Aayog. The exercise by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) had led to an upward revision in growth rates for the UPA years following a change in the base year from 2004-05 to 2011-12.
“We mourn the death of the National Statistical Commission and remember with gratitude its valiant fight to release untainted GDP data and employment data,” Chidambaram said in another tweet.
At present, NSC’s ex-officio member Amitabh Kant, who is the Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog, is the only person at the helm.