The only two non-government members of the National Statistical Commission, including the acting chairman, resigned on Wednesday in protest over "disagreements" with India's government on the release of recent jobs data, according to Reuters.
PC Mohanan, the acting chairperson of the NSC, said their concerns were "not taken seriously" over the data being buried during the election season and felt their work was being sidelined.
The controversy coincided with opposition criticism that claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not following through on his promise to create more jobs during his four years leading the country.
Modi is still leading in the polls before the upcoming election in May, but in recent weeks the polls have forecast his ruling majority would lose control.
Mohanan said he and colleague J. Meenakshi were unhappy after the job data was delayed in December and claimed interference from other state agencies were behind it.
“Both of us in the commission have been feeling that we are not effectively discharging the responsibilities supposed to be done by the commission,” Mohanan told India Today TV on Wednesday.
"We found that the commission was not very effective in discharging whatever it was supposed to do. And in recent times we thought we were being sidelined or we are not taken very seriously," Mohanan told NDTV. "It is an apex body for all statistics in the country. That purpose was not really being served. That was our feeling," he said.
India's Statistics Ministry claimed the two did not express concerns earlier and that it was already processing the jobs data.
“The Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation not only places a high regard for the Commission but also values its advice and on which appropriate action is taken,” the ministry said in its statement on Wednesday.
When authorities released the data last December, ministers used it to attack the opposition Congress for its own performance between 2004 through 2014, after the revisions revealed a slower growth under the Congress-led government than Modi.
But three months before, another government panel estimated the growth was much higher under the previous government.
The critical watchdog agency now has five empty positions after this week's resignations.
Critics of Modi's government said the incident was another example of the state interfering within institutions that are supposed to have autonomy.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram and former finance minister tweeted: "May the NSC rest in peace until it is re-born again! We mourn the death of the National Statistical Commission and remember with gratitude its valiant fight to release untainted GDP data and employment data. One more venerable institution died on 29 January 2019 owing to malicious negligence by the government."
India's economy has been growing by 7 percent annually, but uneven growth means there are not enough jobs for the millions entering the workforce even though it's one of the fastest paces among the major economies in the world.
The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, a leading independent think-tank, released a report in early January which said India lost as many as 11 million jobs last year.
-WN.com, Maureen Foody
Photo:
AP / Saurabh Das
