"Cherry Picking" Growth: The Politics of GDP Numbers Union Minister Piyush Goyal's recent outburst against critics of India's GDP growth figures has sparked a heated debate about the role of data in politics.
While Goyal claims that ministers don't manufacture data, his attacks on opposition leaders and former finance secretaries for questioning the numbers ring hollow.
Goyal's criticism of "naysayers" who compare growth rates under different series may have some merit, but it deflects from the real issue: the accuracy of India's GDP growth rate.