The Congress on Wednesday kept up its offensive over the latest GDP numbers, saying “PR can polish the picture of GDP, but not the economy itself”, as it cited former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg’s assessment to question the government’s 7.8 per cent growth figure.Countering the Congress, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju asked if the opposition party was in a “state of deep intoxication” or had become “so swayed by their blind loathing of India’s growth that it had lost touch with ground reality”.Congress general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh said serious questions over the numbers were now coming from a former senior official of the Modi government itself, and accused the Centre of trying to build a celebratory narrative around growth that did not match conditions on the ground.Citing Garg, Ramesh claimed the former Finance Secretary had assessed the “real GDP growth at around 2.6 per cent against the officially reported 7.8 per cent”.“It’s clear that on the very GDP for which Mr Modi is urging citizens to burst crackers and celebrate Diwali, serious questions are being raised by his own former Finance Secretary,” he said.Ramesh alleged that the government and sections of the media were “beating the drum” of growth based on numbers arrived at through “statistical sleight of hand”, while the situation confronting jobs, investment, businesses and household incomes told a different story.The Kerala Congress also posted an image of a beer mug showing the Indian economy as the liquid and the official GDP numbers as fizz. Replying to the post on X, Rijiju said: “Nobody believes the fake story anymore. The world can see through the fakery.”Saurabh Garg, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, also dismissed the claim that first-quarter economic growth was closer to 2.6 per cent, terming the comparison of the latest GDP estimate with a superseded data series an “apples and oranges” exercise and asserting the 7.8 per cent expansion was backed by solid output data.Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal criticised opposition leaders and former officials who questioned the latest growth data, calling them ‘the only jobless people left’ and accusing them of comparing an old data series with a new one.”They have no idea that comparing apples with apples is a good idea. By comparing growth rates [based on] an old series with a new series where the base year itself has changed, they are attempting to mislead the Indian populace,” he said.