'India became third-largest economy in 2011, PM Modi won't accept it,' says Congress chief Kharge

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday said that India had already become the third-largest economy in 2011 but Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not accepting it. He also said that Congress took 14 crore people out of poverty in 10 years, but the BJP was spreading lies by circulating "edited speeches".  

"According to the World Bank, India became the third largest economy in 2011. But PM Modi is not ready to accept this. We took 14 crore people out of poverty in 10 years. They (BJP) are spreading lies by circulating edited speeches. No matter how many lies are told, the data is always available," he said in a video speech. 

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While Kharge did not elaborate, it appears that he was referring to the Indian economy in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) - a measure of relative consumer prices across countries. In 2011, India had emerged as the world's third-largest economy from being the 10th largest in 2005. It had surpassed Japan to achieve this economic feat and was only behind the US and China.

Prime Minister Modi has on multiple occasions said that India will become the third-largest economy - in terms of GDP - in his third term. While speaking in the Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister on February 5 underled the role of the government in steering the nation towards prosperity. He also drew attention to the Interim Budget tabled in the Parliament in 2014 by the previous UPA government and the statement of the then Finance Minister. 

PM Modi said the then Finance Minister had informed about India being the 11th largest economy in terms of the size of its GDP, while today the country has reached the 5th position. Quoting the then FM, the Prime Minister said that the nation would grow to become the 3rd largest economy in the world after the USA and China in the next 3 decades. "I assure the nation that India will become the 3rd largest economy in the world in the present government's third term."