BJP leader Yashwant Sinha. PTi file photo
BJP leader Yashwant Sinha. PTi file photo
Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha on Wednesday slammed the Modi government’s economic policies, calling it a “mess”, which helped bolster the Opposition criticism of the country’s fiscal health.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh, however, was quick to defend the government and reject Sinha’s critique, asserting: “World admits that India is the fastest growing economy. No one should forget this fact...”
Reacting to Sinha’s sweeping charges against his own party government, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said in Gujarat, “This has happened because the BJP government never listens to farmers, youngsters, labourers, traders and women, who actually run this country. People from BJP listen only to businessmen and then tell the citizens their own ‘mann ki baat.’”
Now a dissident voice within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Sinha said many in the ruling party know that the economy is on a downward spiral, but they are not speaking up out of fear. The veteran BJP leader, in an article published in an English daily, blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s key decisions of demonetisation and GST for the sluggish economy. The government, however, has said it is only a temporary phase and the economy will bounce back subsequently.
“...Demonetisation has proved to be an unmitigated economic disaster, a badly conceived and poorly implemented GST has played havoc with businesses and sunk many of them and countless millions have lost their jobs with hardly any new opportunities coming the way of the new entrants to the labour market,” he commented in the piece headlined “In need to speak now”.
Talking about other sectors, Sinha, who has been sidelined ever since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014, stated that private investment has shrunk, industrial production has taken a nosedive, agriculture is in “distress” and the construction industry, a big employer of the workforce, is in the “doldrums”.
Jaitley hit, too
He also criticised union finance minister Arun Jaitley and accused him of making a “mess” of the economy. Jaitley, however, has not reacted to the charges. A union minister during the Vajpayee regime, the veteran leader from Jharkhand did not spare BJP chief Amit Shah either.
He said the SBI, by asserting that the economic slowdown was not due to “technical” reasons, has “openly contradicted the BJP president”. Sinha also alleged that the Centre has unleashed a ‘Raid Raj on Opposition leaders.
BJP sources said Sinha’s acerbic comments are borne out of frustration and he keeps on ventinghisfeelings owing to the fact that he has not got anythingfrom this dispensation. Modi, however, had made his son Jayant Sinha a junior minister in his government. Jayant is minister of state of civil aviation now.