Yashwant Sinha's criticism of economy based on 'personal frustration': BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on September 28 accused its senior leader Yashwant Sinha of sympathising with "jobless" Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi and P Chidambaram and said his criticism on the way the economy had been handled was based on his "personal frustration."

"The ten years of the UPA Government at the Centre was one of the most corrupt ever. The reality is that Rahul Gandhi, Chidambaram and many others are finding themselves jobless and those who sympathise with such jobless leaders are also making an unfair criticism not based on facts, but based on one's personal frustration,"BJP spokesman GVLNarasimha Rao told ANI.

The BJP also dismissed the Congress' claims of economic mismanagement and said that, at present, the government was doing very fine and finance minister Arun Jaitley had defended Yashwant Sinha's criticism against him by talking about economic issues rather than targeting any individual.

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"Jaitley categorically explained all the economic issues which are at present in debate like how the policies have worked fine in regards to demonetisation, in regard to implementation with the GST. How the Government is pro-active in solving the problems of people; how the Government is tackling the NPA problems; how much expenditure Government is taking into infrastructure?" the party's national spokesperson, economicaffairs, Gopal Krishna Agarwal said.

On September 27, former finance ministerYashwant Sinha criticised Arun Jaitley formaking a mess of Indian economy with measures such as demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST). He found support in former finance minister P Chidambaram who asked the government to admit the truth.

"Will Power now admit the Truth that economy is sinking?" the former finance minister wrote in one tweet.

Defending the government's economic policies, and referring to Chidambaram and Yashwant Sinha's attacks on him, Arun Jaitley said yesterday that he didnot have the luxury of being a former finance minister or a former finance minister who has turned a columnist.Without taking names, he described Yashwant Sinha, 84, as a "job applicant at 80".

"I must confess that I do not have the luxury as yet of being a former finance Minister nor do I have the luxury of being a former finance minister who has turned a columnist. Therefore, I can conveniently forget a policy paralysis, four billion reserves left in 1991 and I can switch over and change a narrative. Speaking on persons and then bypassing the issues is something which is very easily done."

Backing the demonetisation,Jaitley said that the government intended to expose the black money market and track down those operating in it.

"Demonetisation was not synonymous with confiscation of money. We gave an opportunity to people to come clean about their accounts held abroad. The prime minister had a very strong agenda on creating a new normal as far as the shadow economy in India was concerned," he said at a book launch.

The finance minister said he was being criticised for bringing out reforms too quickly."I am being criticised for doing incremental changes. Post GST, the biggest criticism was that why I implemented it so quickly after demonetisation," he said.

Arun Jaitley also downplayedremarks that the economy wason a downward spiral.

"The Direct tax figures are 15.7 per cent over and above last year`s figure, so this so-called slowdown visualised by some, hasn't even impacted," he said.

Yashwant Sinha responded to Jaitley's job applicant remark by stating that had he been a job applicant, Jaitley would not have been finance minister in the first place.

In a rejoinder to his father, Yashwant Sinha's son and Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said yesterday that demonetisation and the introduction of the GST were structural reforms that were necessary for transforming the economy in the long term and that GDP growth of one or two quarters was insufficient to ascertain the long-term impact of these measures.

He also rejected contentions that he wrote the opinion piece at anyone's bidding, insisting it was "absolutely out of his own conscience".

He also said his difference of opinion with his father was "very serious discussion" and that it should not be seen "in a personal way".