'How much does he know?' Jaitley slams Rahul Gandhi's Mandsaur speech

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has slammed — and fact-checked — the speech Rahul Gandhi's gave at Mandsaur today.

"How much does he know? When will he know?" Jaitley said in a Facebook post. He then went on to ask whether Rahul was being "inadequately briefed" or whether he was being a little too "liberal with his facts".

Rahul spoke in Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh today on the first anniversary of the killing of seven farmers by police. The farmers had been agitating for higher remuneration for their crops.

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Rahul promised his audience that all farm loans would be waived should the Congress be voted into power in Madhya Pradesh in the forthcoming assembly elections.

He also met the families of the farmers shot dead last year.

Mandsaur killings anniversary: Rahul promises farm loans waiver, meets families of the dead

This is what Jaitley had to say about his speech:

1). He (Rahul Gandhi) accused Prime Minister Modi of waiving of the loans of Rs.2.5 lakh crores of the 15 top industrialists in the country. - Factually this is completely false.
The Government has not waived of a single rupee due from any industrialist. The facts are to the contrary. Those who owed money to the banks and other creditors have been declared insolvent and removed from their companies by IBC enacted by Prime Minister Modi’s Government. These loans were given largely during the UPA Government.

2). Loans are not available to the kisans but only to the industrialists- Factually false.
This was during the UPA Government, particularly UPA II, when bulk of amount constitute the NPA’s today were given by the banking system during the period 2008-14. From 2014 we have been systematically taking one step after the other to recover these monies back.

3). Prime Minister has given Rs.35000 crores each to two diamond jewellers who have now escaped out of country – factually false.
This banking fraud started in the year 2011 when the UPA II was in power. It was only detected during the NDA period.

4). If the Congress comes to power mobile phones, which are made in China, will now be manufactured in India - a case of inadequate knowledge.
In the year 2014 when UPA went out of power, there were only two mobile phone manufacturing units in India. In 2018, with the result of our electronics policy and the incentives in a four year period, this has increased to 120 units with an investment of Rs.1,32,000 crores.

5). Jobs not being created in India
The latest GDP date has reemphasised India as the fastest growing economy in the world. There is a double digit growth in construction, expansion in manufacturing, an increased capital formation which indicates investment increase, large investment in physical infrastructure and increased investment in rural India. All these are job creating sectors.

6). We will connect farms and villages to the cities – His impression is of the Digvijay Singh era in Madhya Pradesh.
Madhya Pradesh had the worst set of roads in India when the Congress was voted out in 2003. Poor quality roads was one key reason for ousting the Congress. Thanks to Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Prime Minister Modi who during the NDA Government, has tripled the investment in rural roads, in comparison to what the UPA spent, there is a revolution in the Gram Sadak Yojana.