Grand alliance a tried, tested and failed idea, says Jaitley
ent policy and a strong leader versus a completely anarchic combination,” Jaitley said.
His remarks come in the backdrop of efforts by the Congress and other opposition parties to cobble together an alliance to take on the BJP led by Narendra Modi in the 2019 elections. A successful coalition should have a “very strong nucleus,” he said.
The finance minister noted that the BJP under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Modi had provided such a nucleus to the previous and current National Democratic Alliance governments.
“You cannot have a nucleus of a handful of people... it will then be an unstable nucleus,” Jaitley said. Next year is not a time when one can opt for an anarchic combination, he said, adding that an aspirational India, having missed the industrial revolution of the 1970s, wouldn’t back such an alliance.
“There are some (constituents of the proposed grand alliance) whose leaders are temperamentally maverick, there are some whose i nterests are purely regional — “give my state extra money,” (they say); and there are some who only want some criminal cases to be closed,” he said.
The Congress took exception to Jaitley’s remarks. Congress spokesperson Pranav Jha said rather than comment on opposition unity efforts, BJP should worry about a ‘maha gathbandhan’ of unemployed youngsters, distraught farmers, insecure women and the ignored middle class. “Everyone feels cheated and together they are going to unseat this arrogant government from the Centre as well as states,” he said.
At the event, in reply to a separate question, Jaitley said trusting individuals who came to the BJP only for positions of power had been a mistake that the party made in the past. Describing such politicians as “career nationalists,” the minister said they remained nationalist only as long as the BJP offered them a career.
“The moment we could not do it, they looked elsewhere. I have always maintained within the party and outside that trusting people like this who hang around in the periphery of political parties was probably a mistake that we historically made,” Jaitley said.
He did not name anyone, but it was seen as an oblique reference to former Union ministers such as Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie who have openly criticised the Prime Minister and his government on policy matters and the way India’s ruling party was functioning.
Jaitley also dismissed Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s statement — on Friday at the HT Leadership Summit — that the current regime was not allowing a debate to take place and was imposing its own idea of India on others, and particularly Gandhi’s claim that he had told the finance minister that Kashmir was on fire but he hadn’t been heard.
“I have heard him say (so) in the past. But I cannot respond to hallucinations,” Jaitley said, before adding, “I am second man to have suffered from (Gandhi’s) hallucinations. President (Emmanuel) Macron was the first.” That was a reference to Gandhi’s statement that the French President told him there was no secrecy clause in the deal for Rafale jet fighters signed with Paris; Macron’s government denied the claim.
Jaitley also dismissed Gandhi’s allegation that investigating agencies were being used to clamp down on people and there was fear among businessmen: “Tell me in the last two years (the names of) two businessmen who have been wrongly arrested. When you (Gandhi) make a speech… something must be based on some factual basis.”