Covid relief packages failed to revive economy: Yashwant Sinha

KOCHI: Though Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman announced two Covid relief packages valued at Rs 44 lakh crore to revive the economy, the kind of investment that is required in the current Covid situation is not coming, former Union finance minister and Trinamool Congress leader Yashwant Sinha has said.

While interacting with mediapersons on Saturday ahead of the programme ‘India Forward’ — a virtual talk series organised by Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sinha, a former BJP leader, said the Indian economy has been devastated due to the wrong policies of demonetisation and faulty implementation of GST.  

The repeal of the three farm laws is a very calculated political move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sinha said. “Elections to five states are round the corner and UP is very important to BJP, and so is Punjab. The farmers in these states, in particular in UP and Punjab, were up in arms against the laws. 

The government has learned that the protests were going to impact their prospects in the upcoming elections. BJP is today a party of ‘election jivis’,” he said. The situation would change with the repeal of the farm laws and it is premature to predict the outcome of the forthcoming elections in the five states, Sinha added.