Jaitley hits back, calls Sinha ‘job applicant at 80’
On Thursday, a day after receiving flak from party colleague Y ash want Sin ha, Finance Minister( FM) Arun Jaitley described his predecessor as a“job applicant at 80”. At the release of a book, India @70
Modi@3.5, the FM said ,“Probably, a more appropriate title for the book would have been India @70, Modi@3.5 and a job applicant@ 80.”
Refraining from taking names, he accused Sin ha of acting in concert with former finance minister P Chi dam bar am in critic is ing him.
Jaitley, who is facing criticism for over seeing the economy to slip to its slow est pace of growth in three years, said he had done a little research to pull out what Sin ha and Chi dam bar am had to say about each other in the past .“One said of the other: Chidambaram will have to be born again to match my record as finance minister. He then linked finance minister Chi dam bar am to an in competent doctor for failing to curb India’ s alarming fiscal deficit. And then went on and said I accuse him of running the economy down to the ground ,” he said in an apparent reference to comments made by Sin ha.
Sinha, hesaid, had accused Chi dam bar am of being “the most conceited person” who bugged his phones.
Not to be left behind, Chidambaram had called Sin ha’ s tenure during the At al Bih ari Vaj payee government as the “worst years since liberal is at ion ”, here called.
Ja it ley said he did not have the luxury as yet of being a former finance minister (Sinha) nor did he have the luxury of being a former finance minister who has turned a columnist (Chidambaram). Being a former finance minister ,“I can conveniently forget a policy paralysis( during UP A-II ). I can conveniently forget the 15 percent NP As of 1998 and 2002( during Sin ha’ s term as financeminister). I can conveniently forget the $4- billion reserve left in 1991 and I can switch over and change the narrative.”
In a newspaper article on Wednesday, Sin ha had critic is e dJ a it ley for running the economy a ground. That afternoon, Chi dam bar amp raised Sin ha for speaking “truth to power ”, and for echoing what the Congress had been saying about the state of the economy.
Ja it ley recalled the advice given to him by party senior LK Advaniw hen he spoke in Parliament in 1999 on the Boforsissue, of not making personal comments while speaking on issues. He said he had some very distinguished predecessors, including a former President( Pranab Mukherjee) and a former Prime Minister( Man mo han Singh) and the other predecessors, who had“decided to act in concert ”. “Because speaking on persons and then by passing the issues is something which is very easily done,” hesaid.
Earlier, Bibek Debroy, the chief of the PM’ s Economic Advisory Council and co-editor of the book, compared Sinhato a quack who had mistake na common cold that the economy has caught to something as life-threatening as chikungunya.
At the event, Jaitley admitted to “some teething troubles” because of the goods and services tax (GST) roll-out, but refused to agree to claims that the economy had entered a slowdown phase.
The FM said direct tax figures had recorded an increase of 15.7 per cent, and the “so-called slowdown which some visualise hasn’t impacted that (direct tax collection)”. The GST collections in the first two months had met the target and the revenue will see further surge, he said.
“We have only completed two months under the GST regime. As a base year of 2015-16, we had to give two hikes of 14 per cent each to the states, and for both the months (July and August), with some part of the compensation cess, wear ewell within that figure,” he said. The FM said he did not “imagine that states will reach break-even points within two to three months ... As we walk down next couple of months we probably will move up”.
On electoral bonds, the FM said the move was in the final stages of implementation. On price rise, he said, the government had inherited inflation of 9-10 per cent and subsequently brought it down to a respectable level. On the criticism of rising inflation by the Opposition, he said, “3.36 per cent is also inflation (to them). Of course, system needs inflation otherwise economy will go into a recession.” He also said the Narendra Modi-led government brought down the fiscal deficit and current account deficit and maintained the rupee at the appropriate value. “We not only opened up several sectors we made the entry (of foreign investors) smoother... India attracted highest FDI year-onyear," he said.
Jaitley admitted that demonetisation had some short-term impact but added it would lead to positives in the medium and long term — the increase in tax base being a positive fallout.
Sinha continued with his criticism of Jaitley on Thursday. He said any government “should listen” when people like former prime minister Manmohan Singh or Chidambaram speak. In a rebuttal to his father, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said, in a newspaper column, that several articles have been written on the challenges facing the Indian economy. “Unfortunately, these articles draw sweeping conclusions from a narrow set of facts, and quite simply miss the fundamental structural reforms that are transforming the economy,” Jayant said.
Referring to his son’s defence of the government, Yashwant Sinha sought to know why Jayant was shifted from the finance ministry “if he was so competent” to answer the concerns raised by him. Jayant was shifted out of the finance ministry in July last year.