Here’s the transcript, edited for clarity:SG: A big fight has broken out, or shall we call it a kerfuffle, our favourite word from the past. And this time, it is over the quarterly growth figures. The Modi government has reported that the growth figure for the first quarter, growth figure for each quarter comes with a two month lag.This is the quarter of April-May-June. That is at 7.8 percent. Opposition are calling it statistical gymnastics. Also, former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg has appeared on TV channels, saying that this is wrong. He has put some figures on the table.He said this growth, if at all, is just 2.6%. It is not 7.8%. That 7.8% number is a fix.Last year, that is for the financial year 2025-26, for the first quarter, the Modi government reported that the total economic activity in India or the total GDP output in that quarter, one quarter, was Rs 86 trillion—precisely Rs 86.05 trillion. They came out with the new base year for GDP calculation. The earlier base year was 2011-12, now it has been shifted to 2022-23. With that, Q1 FY 2025-26 figure of Rs 86.05 trillion has been downrated, or has been reduced to Rs 80 trillion—exactly Rs 80.44 trillion as we stand now, because this keeps getting revised. So at this point, the Q1, the corresponding quarter to what is in dispute right now. The argument is that Modi government reduced last year’s GDP from Rs 86.05 trillion to Rs 80.44 trillion, so that this year’s, the same quarter, corresponding quarter’s GDP in comparison would look better.If you compare this quarter’s GDP, which is Rs 88.27 trillion, with Rs 80.44 trillion of last year’s corresponding quarter, you get a growth of nearly 10.3%. But if last year’s corresponding quarter had stayed at Rs 86.05 trillion, which was the original, then 88.27 over 86.05 will only yield you 2.8% growth. That is the argument that there is a fix.The fact we also need to note is that this base year revision actually did not dress up the figures for Modi government. It actually dressed them down. The size of India’s GDP overall went down for FY 2025-26, which went considerably lower than it would have been under the old base year formula.Even if you accept the 7.8% growth figure, there are problems. And for that, I will comment on Bidisha Bhattacharya’s column.People’s household spending is not growing. Gold buying is also coming down, although the Prime Minister is telling households to buy even less gold.