‘Cong, Hardik cheating people over quota’
SURAT/AHMEDABAD: Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said the reservation formula agreed upon by the Congress and Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel was constitutionally untenable and accused both of cheating the people of Gujarat.
The BJP leader accused the Congress of dividing the society for political gains ahead of the assembly polls next month.
Jaitley, who is the BJP’S election in charge for Gujarat, claimed that Congress’s attempt to gain political ground through such tactics would eventually push Gujarat into anarchy.
He added that the people of the state were smart and would never fall prey to such “deception”.
“In the end, this election will be fought on two core issues. On one side, there is stability and governance, while on the other side, there is anarchy. There are two main combinations...congress’s combination has become a representative of anarchist forces. That is the reason the Congress leadership has lost its way,” he added.
Meeting representatives of Surat’s textile industry, Jaitley assured them that the Centre would look into their concerns.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had on November 8, the first anniversary of demonetisation, spent a day with textile workers.
The Surat textiles industry body made a representation before the finance minister, seeking ease in procedures related to the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Both the association and Jaitley said the meeting was positive.
“I am happy that the textile industry of Surat, which is very progressive and which has made a name for itself in the entire world, is very positive about the government’s economic policies and is in support of GST,” Jaitley said.
“They expect the procedures should be made simpler, especially for small textile industry, so that they are not overburdened with procedural compliance. I have invited a small representation in Delhi and put their facts before the officials concerned. The GST council is trying for the same and we will also certainly do our best,” he said.
JAITLEY PRAISES NOTE BAN
Jaitley claimed that post demonetisation, those who distributed money to stone pelters in Jammu and Kashmir were “not able to gather” even 100 young people to carry out the attacks.
“On November 8 last year, we introduced note ban and it had a major impact. Those who used to distribute money to stone pelters are not able to gather even 100 youth to pelt stones in the past eight to 10 months after demonetisation,” Jaitley said.
He was speaking after listening to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ here with BJP workers.
The minister also said “those who orchestrated” the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks stand isolated.
“When they (Pakistan) released the person who did it (Hafiz Saeed) two days ago, the entire world said in one voice that the country is supporting terrorism and such a country shouldn’t be a member of the world family,” he said.
The senior BJP leader also claimed that for the first time, the security forces had an upper hand in the Kashmir Valley.