Rajiv Kumar, the vice-chairman of economic think-tank NITI Aayog, on Monday said former Reserve Bank of India chief Raghuram Rajan, not demonetisation, was to blame for the economic slowdown in the country.
News18 quoted Kumar as saying, "It is a continuation of a trend of a declining growth, and why was this growth declining, it was declining because of the rising NPAs in the banking sector. When this (NDA) government came into office that figure was 4 lakh crore, it rose to 10.5 lakh crore by the middle of 2017 because under the previous RBI governor, Mr. Rajan, they had identified mechanisms to identify stressed and non-performing assets which is why the banks stopped giving credit to industries."
He added that there was no evidence to prove that there was a direct link between demonetisation and slowdown in the growth rate.
Kumar also claimed that former home minister P Chidambaram and former prime minister Manmohan Singh added to the slowdown in economic growth.
Watch Kumar speak to ANI about demonetisation.