From Oil to Elections: Highlights of News18 Exclusive with Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: In an exclusive interview with News18 Network, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ruled out advancing the Lok Sabha elections and flagged rising crude oil prices as a cause for concern.


Here’s a look at the highlights:

On-Time Elections

“Government wants simultaneous elections, but it is not necessary that dates will be advanced for that. Till the time Constitution is changed, and there is consensus on the issues, the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections will not overlap. And going by the reaction the issue evoked, it seems people (opposition) are not in favour of any such move.”



Crude Concerns

“We have to see to what extent the crude oil prices rise. Today, crude oil prices have touched $70 per barrel. It is in the outer periphery of our comfort threshold. I want it to remain below this level. If it goes above this level, since we are a net buyer, it will have an impact on inflation. While we have one eye on monsoon, the other eye is on crude oil prices.”


Rajasthan Loss

“I have spoken to chief minister (Vasundhara Raje). And the party is working on corrective measures if they are necessary.”


Against Protectionism

“I am concerned because once this tendency picks up, all countries would try and play the same game. We have seen from our experience, that opening out has helped us... Among the various things in the last two-and-a-half decades that has helped the Indian economy is the fact that we have become more confident. We are open to investment. We don't think that a foreign investor is coming here to the detriment of the Indian economy. Today, we see him as someone who is bringing in capital which will create jobs in India.”


Crisis in Judiciary

“I think this is not the first time that this has happened. It does not happen very often, but I do not think this is the last time this is happening. I have great faith in our institutions and their resilience. I am quite sure that they are competent enough to resolve it themselves.”


Why Govt Decided to be Strict

“When the government came to power, it was at such a time that India was breaking in terms of power in front of the whole world. We were even considered part of fragile five. Policy paralysis… we were called highly corrupt society. Some said that we as a country are incapable of taking decisions. A reporter had asked what if India falls off BRICS? This is why the government decided to become strict and take stricter decisions. We achieved growth of around 8-9%.”


Banking Reforms

Could bank reforms have come earlier? “Could have. Because we were making all honest efforts and so was RBI. They wanted to make sure through various schemes, whether the restructuring etc, could revive these companies, but it looked a little too late.”


Merger, Not Shutdown of Public Sector Banks

“I don't think shutting down is an option. Merging and amalgamation is always a good option. That good option will have a good time for it to be exercised. You can't merge a weak bank with another weak bank and have a mega weak bank. You have to strengthen the banks first. You could merge a weak bank with a strong bank and therefore come out with a reasonably sized bank or you could merge three banks into one. India doesn't need 30 public sector banks. Now you have 31 or so...”


Swachh Mission

“In this country, if there has been a social reform movement in the past 70 years, then that is Modiji's Swachh Bharat campaign. In 3.5 years, we have reached 76% (sanitation level) from 36%. We will also build 2 crore toilets this year. This not only protects the dignity of women, but also works towards abolishing the caste system. Today, there are modern toilets in each household of our villages. This helps in infusing a sense of self-respect and improving the quality of life of our villagers. We are giving stoves to 8 crore women, house, electricity, stove, toilet and roads.”