Congress and BJP on Thursday were engaged in verbal duel over Maharashtra’s share in exports and in attracting the foreign direct investment (FDI) at the national level.
It all started after BJP legislator Atul Bhatkhalkar in a tweet said, ‘’ Due to able leadership of Best CM @Officeof UT Maharashtra has lost its number 1 position export. State’s share in the country’s exports has declined from 24% to 20%. The state has fallen to the second position in the Export Preparedness Index prepared by @NITIAayog.’’
However, the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman Sachin Sawant strongly denied Bhatkhalkar’s allegation and in a tweet said, "Bhatkhalkar, you naughty liar! Again, mischief with data by cropped data by cropped screenshot! How many times do I have to expose you? Data which you deliberated excluded shows that export value of Maharashtra vs India was really 24% but in 2016-17 which slipped each year then after till 2019-20".
In another tweet, he added, "When it finally stopped to 21% that dark era was of Fadnavis government. Now during MVA in 2020-21, Maharashtra’s exports saw upswing when it registered 22.7% export. As far as Export Preparedness Index is concerned, NITI Aayog launched it in 2020 first time. You are awaking after one year. But to set records straight -Export Preparedness does not mean actual export.’'
Sawant further said, "In actual export value, Maharashtra with 22.2% is far ahead of Gujarat (17.2%), Karnataka (12.7%), Tamil Nadu (11.5%) and Telangana (6.4%).
Moreover, Bhatkhalkar claimed that Maharashtra has also declined to second rank in terms of FDI. ‘’What is more, the state has lagged behind in the One District One Industry scheme. The credit goes to anti industry and business policies of Thackeray Government", he said.
However, Sawant slammed Bhatkhalkar on his remarks on state slipping to second rank in FDI. ‘’ As far as FDI is concerned, Maharashtra tops the list from October 2019 to December 2020. FDI inflow in Maharashtra stood at $20,899.10 million between October 2019 and December 2020, the highest among all states in India,’’ he noted.
