India is looking a lot like Sri Lanka and no distraction will help the economy, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday, even as his party slammed the Narendra Modi government for “record-breaking” wholesale inflation. 

“Distracting people won’t change the facts. India looks a lot like Sri Lanka,” Mr. Gandhi tweeted, with graphs comparing the situation between the two countries on three different parameters.   

The first graph showed the almost identical pattern of unemployment going up from 2017, peaking around 2020 and then marginally dipping in 2021.   

The second graph showed petrol prices following a similar trajectory in both the countries; the third graph pointed to a sharp rise in communal violence in 2020-21.   

Mr. Gandhi attributed his comparative analysis to data to sourced from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, unstarred questions in the Lok Sabha, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, and Ceylon Petroleum Corporation. (The Hindu)