(The following piece originally appeared on Arun Jaitley’s Facebook page, and has been reproduced here in its entirety with no changes.)
Every time I listen to the view of Shri Rahul Gandhi, both inside and outside Parliament, I ask myself the same question – How much does he know? When will he know?
Listening to his speech delivered in Madhya Pradesh today (6 June) reaffirms my curiosity about the answer. Is he being inadequately briefed or is he being a little too liberal with his facts? I take for consideration the six basic points that he made in the speech today.
1). He accused Prime Minister Modi of waiving off the loans of Rs 2.5 lakh crore of the 15 top industrialists in the country — Factually, this is completely false.
The government has not waived off a single rupee due from any industrialist. The facts are to the contrary. Those who owed money to the banks and other creditors have been declared insolvent and removed from their companies by Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) enacted by Prime Minister Modi’s government. These loans were given largely during the UPA government.
2). Loans are not available to the kisans, but only to the industrialists — Factually false.
This was during the UPA government, particularly UPA II. A bulk of the amount that make up NPAs today were given out by the banking system during the period 2008-14. From 2014, we have been systematically taking one step after the other to recover these monies back.
3). Prime Minister has given Rs 35,000 crore each to two diamond jewellers who have now escaped out of the country — factually false.
This banking fraud started in the year 2011, when UPA II was in power. It was only detected during the NDA period.
4). If the Congress comes to power, mobile phones which are made in China will now be manufactured in India — a case of inadequate knowledge.
In the year 2014, when UPA went out of power, there were only two mobile phone manufacturing units in India. In 2018, with the result of our electronics policy and the incentives in a four-year period, this has increased to 120 units with an investment of Rs.1,32,000 crore.
5). Jobs not being created in India
The latest GDP date has re-emphasised India as the fastest growing economy in the world. There is a double digit growth in construction, expansion in manufacturing, an increased capital formation – which indicates investment increase, – large investment in physical infrastructure and increased investment in rural India. All these are job-creating sectors.
6). We will connect farms and villages to the cities – his impression is of the Digvijay Singh-era in Madhya Pradesh.
Madhya Pradesh had the worst set of roads in India when the Congress was voted out in 2003. Poor quality of roads was one key reason for ousting the Congress. Thanks to Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Prime Minister Modi – who during the NDA government has tripled the investment in rural roads in comparison to what the UPA spent – there is a revolution in the Gram Sadak Yojana.
Watch Rahul Gandhi’s speech here:
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