New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday taunted the Congress for being 48 years behind the times to contest the 2019 elections on a 1971 agenda. “2019 and 1971 are 48 years apart. India’s social combination and economic profile has completely changed,” he said in a blog titled “Has the Congress thrown its hands up?” His reference was to the Congress vowing to remove poverty, claiming that it was resurrecting the party’s 1971 slogan of “Garibi Hatao” without any data to back up its claim of 20% extremely poor families in the country. Asserting that “the writing on the wall is clear,” he asked Rahul Gandhi to stop dreaming to come to power, promising a “surgical strike” on poverty on coming to power.
He asked Rahul to better read the World Bank report that says the poverty in India was already down to 21.2% in 2011. Since the poverty must have declined much further in the past eight years, he wondered where the Congress will find 20% poor to extend help. Jaitley said Rahul is becoming a victim of his own “falsehoods,” be it the “fake narrative” of Rafale and loan waiver to business houses which was also “contrary to the truth.” He also ridiculed Rahul for offering four out of seven Lok Sabha seats to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal”s party that “displayed the desperation of a loser.”