Bhopal, Jul 14 (PTI) Joint opposition"s presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha on Thursday said India"s economy will not go the Sri Lankan way, but expressed concern about the fast depleting foreign exchange reserves and the sliding value of the rupee against the US dollar. The former Union finance minister said this during his visit to the Madhya Pradesh capital to meet the Congress MLAs as part of his campaign for the presidential election. "India will not go the way Sri Lanka is going. Our economy is not based on one or two industries. Sri Lanka"s economy was primarily based on tourism, which was hit by COVID-19. Tea market also got affected. That is not the situation with us," he said while addressing a press conference. Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine, fuel and other essentials. "But I want to give you one more figure. Some days ago, our foreign exchange reserve was USD 641 billion. In saving the rupee"s downfall, the RBI has spent USD 45 billion...A grim situation is developing. Our huge foreign exchange reserves are depleting very fast," he added. The rupee is sliding down against the USD. It has already touched 79.86 mark against the dollar, Sinha said. On Thursday, the rupee edged closer to the historic low of 80-mark against the US dollar as it declined by a little over 18 paise to settle at 79.9975 amid a stronger greenback in overseas markets. "The government should come up with a reply. The rupee was 58.44 against the dollar in 2014 when Narendra Modi became the prime minister...He used to say earlier that if (former PM) Manmohan Singh was so intelligent, then why was the value of rupee was falling," he added. The former Union minister said one can never fight a market. "If the market is determined that the rupee would go down to 85 against the dollar, you can"t fight it, even if you spend foreign reserves," he added. In the last leg of his visit to the states, Sinha is scheduled to reach out to the public representatives in his home state Bihar and Jharkhand. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has fielded Droupadi Murmu, a tribal leader from Odisha, as its candidate for the election to the top post. PTI LAL MAS NP NP