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.
Sinha writing a critique in The Indian Express newspaper titled “I need to speak up now” 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.”
Sinha, whose son Jayant Sinha is in the union cabinet ministry didn’t even spare the PM Modi and finance minister Jaitley and said “Bluff and bluster is fine for the hustings, it evaporates in the face of reality. The prime minister claims that he has seen poverty from close quarters. His finance minister is working over-time to make sure that all Indians also see it from equally close quarters.”
The reaction by Sinha on Indian economy expectedly evoked strong response from opposition with senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram tweeting “Yashwant Sinha speaks Truth to Power. Will Power now admit the Truth that economy is sinking?” and “… ETERNAL TRUTH: No matter what Power does, ultimately Truth will prevail.”
Mr Sinha, in his summary of the economy, says: “Private investment has shrunk as never before in two decades, industrial production has all but collapsed, agriculture is in distress, construction industry, a big employer of the work force, is in the doldrums, the rest of the service sector is also in the slow lane, exports have dwindled, sector after sector of the economy is in distress, 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,” reported NDTV.
He further added that, “The spokespersons of the government say that demonetisation is not responsible for this deceleration. They are right. The deceleration had started much earlier. Demonetisation only added fuel to fire.”
Yaswant Sinha also debunked the theory of BJP national president Amit Shah that it’s a technical matter and said that, “It has openly contradicted what the BJP president said just a few days ago that the slowdown in the last quarter was on account of ‘technical’ reasons and will be corrected soon.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the backdrop of slowdown and low growth rate has appointed a five-member economic advisory council headed by Bibek Debroy. The council will have to formulate a plan in accordance with the finance ministry to get the economy back on track and give belief to the Indian electorate that the slowdown is a minor glitch in larger scheme of things.
