“Prime Minister Narendra Modi claims that he has seen poverty from close quarters. His finance minister Arun Jaitley is working over-time to make sure that all Indians also see it from equally close quarters.”
India, which is going through an economic crisis and suffering in the aftermath of demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax implementation has not impressed veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, who has come down heavily on prime minister Narendra Modi and union finance minister Arun Jaitley about the way they have handled the economy.
Yashwant Sinha said that, “I shall be failing in my national duty if I did not speak up even now against the mess the finance minister has made of the economy. I am also convinced that what I am going to say reflects the sentiments of a large number of people in the BJP and elsewhere who are not speaking up out of fear.”
Sinha continuing his dissatisfaction with the economy further added that, “We protested against raid raj when we were in opposition. Today it has become the order of the day. Post demonetisation, the income tax department has been charged with the responsibility of investigating lakhs of cases involving the fate of millions of people. The Enforcement Directorate and the CBI also have their plates full. Instilling fear in the minds of the people is the name of the new game.”
In his piece, Sinha reserves the most scathing words for Arun Jaitley, calling him a “lucky finance minister, luckier than any in the post-liberalisation era”. He admits that Jaitley is believed to be the “best and the brightest” in the Narendra Modi government, and that the current finance minister’s “indispensability” was established when he was given four ministries after the BJP’s landslide victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
Jaitley still retains three of those ministries with Defence now being handled by Nirmala Sitharaman, Yashwant Sinha notes. But, not even “a superman like Jaitley” can do justice to the task of multi-tasking between a portfolio that includes the demanding finance ministry, Sinha writes.
But Jaitley has made a “mess” of it, Sinha writes at the beginning of his piece.
He squandered a golden opportunity when he took over the management of the Indian economy, Sinha goes on to essentially say. “Depressed global crude oil prices placed at his (Jaitley) disposal lakhs of crores of rupees,” Sinha says. “But the oil bonanza has been wasted and the legacy problems (stalled projects and bad loans) have not only been allowed to persist, they have become worse.”
A number of Opposition leaders from the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Left joined Sinha in slamming the Modi government over its performance in economy.
“Yashwant Sinha speaks Truth to Power. Will Power now admit the Truth that economy is sinking?” tweeted another former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram.
“Very hard hitting article by Shri Yashwant Sinha ji,” said Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal on Twitter.
Incidentally, Sinha is not the first from the BJP to raise a red flag over the slump. BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy and former Union Minister Arun Shourie have also attacked the government and warned it of dire consequences if the mess in the economy is not contained.
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