Citing GDP data from April-June, Shivraj Chouhan terms India a ‘long live economy’

In an apparent reference to United States President Donald Trump’s characterisation of India’s economy as “dead” in July, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday (August 30, 2025) cited government data to counter the remark.

“India is a ‘long live economy’, which is on the path to realising the dream of a developed and fully self-reliant India,” Mr. Chouhan posted on social media. The “sweat of Indian farmers, hard work of our scientists, and 140 crore Indians have demonstrated their capabilities,” he added.

The Minister was citing government data released on Friday (August 29, 2025), which showed the Indian economy had grown by 7.8% in April-June, the highest in five quarters, before Mr. Trump imposed tariffs.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India was moving forward to fulfil the resolve of a developed India, Mr. Chouhan said.

The BJP also used this data point on Saturday (August 30, 2025) to attack Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who had agreed with Mr. Trump’s characterisation. “Yes, he is right. Everybody knows this, except the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister,” the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha had said.

Mr. Trump’s remarks on the Indian economy had come hours after he had announced 25% tariffs on the import of Indian goods, and an unspecified “penalty” for buying the “vast majority” of Russian military equipment and crude oil.

The BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya named Mr. Gandhi in his social media post. “For the acerbic, delusional, frustrated, and rejected Rahul Gandhi -- the same man who declared India a ‘dead economy’ -- the latest GDP numbers are the hardest slap of reality,” Mr. Malviya said. “India has just clocked 7.8 per cent GDP growth in Q1 of FY 2025-26, leading the world’s major economies,” he added.

The only thing “dead” was Mr. Gandhi’s credibility, Mr. Malviya said.

In another post on X, Mr. Malviya said India was not only growing but also proving the “doomsayers wrong, quarter after quarter”. “The same purveyors of the ‘India is a dead economy’ narrative are now scrambling to hide their faces,” he said.

The BJP’s national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla added that the Indian economy was “rewriting” global benchmarks. “Rahul Gandhi said the economy is dead. ‘Dead nahi, deadly hai’ (India’s economy is not dead, it’s deadly),” Mr. Poonawalla said in a post on X. “This momentum shows that the so-called ‘dead economy’ is in fact alive, thriving, and deadly strong,” he added.

In his immediate reactions to President Trump’s remarks on the Indian economy, Mr. Gandhi had also alleged that the BJP-led government at the Centre had destroyed the country’s economic, defence and foreign policies, running India “to the ground”.