‘GRAND ALLIANCE A TRIED, TESTED AND FAILED IDEA’

Next year’s Lok Sabha elections will be a contest between the “tried, tested and failed idea” of a “mahagatbandhan” (grand alliance) of opposition parties and the promise of stability and coherence held out by a Bharatiya Janata Party-led ruling dispensation that has a strong leader at the helm, Jaitley said.

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday the country’s investigative agencies must realise their autonomy does not mean it can lead to “investigative adventurism”.

To a question at the 16th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit about a prevailing sentiment among businesses that the current situation was anti-businessmen, Jaitley said those industrialists who had “escaped the country” after “managing the system” are the ones who are dissatisfied.

“I don’t think there is an anti-business or anti-businessman sentiment,” he added.

He, however, said autonomy in investigating agencies could leave room for misuse of powers. “Autonomy is meant for gentleman organisations. Because if any of the organisations or an individual in an organisation turns rogue then that autonomy is misused as non-accountability. And that can lead to investigative adventurism, which is extremely dangerous,” the finance minister said.

He said there was a need for layers of accountability in the system.