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India needs a ‘decisive’ leader like PM Narendra Modi: Arun Jaitley
Listing achievements of the Modi government, Jaitley said, India has improved its position in the “ease of doing” business ranking from 142 to 77 and now nurtures an ambition to be seen among the first 50 countries.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday made a poll pitch by projecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “decisive” leader who sustained high average growth without stoking inflation, and criticised the Opposition’s bid to form an “unworkable” alliance with a “maverick” leadership.
He said, India is the fastest-growing “major” economy in the world. “Still we are not satisfied with a 7 to 7.5% growth rate. We are increasingly becoming impatient and want to break the 8% barrier,” Jaitley wrote in his blog.
“Who should be India’s Prime Minister, if India were to achieve this? Should he/she be constrained by his/her rival aspirants who have reluctantly supported him/her out of mere dislike for a common opponent or does India need a Prime Minister with a clear mandate as in 2014. Only such a Prime Minister can deliver growth and satisfy the nation’s aspirations,” he said, referring to efforts of the opposition parties to form a “mahagathbandhan” [grand alliance] to defeat Modi in the 2019 general election.
Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh, however, held the Modi government “single handedly responsible for destroying, damaging and demolishing” the economy. “There is no doubt about the fact that the twin assaults on the economy — demonetisation and a flawed GST [Goods and Services Tax] — finished jobs and completely decimated the unorganised sector,” he said.
Listing achievements of the Modi government, Jaitley said, India has improved its position in the “ease of doing” business ranking from 142 to 77 and now nurtures an ambition to be seen among the first 50 countries.
With the help of a comparative chart, he tried to show that the economy grew faster under the Modi government with an average GDP growth of 7.3% than under previous regimes including Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which posted 6.9% and 6.7% average GDP growth rates respectively in its two successive stints.
India’s fiscal discipline in the past five years has been among the best as compared to any preceding period, he said. Quoting reports of McKinsey Institute, the research arm of the consulting giant McKinsey, he said that the size of India’s middle-class was growing very fast from 14% in 2005 to 29% in 2015.
The Congress, however, attacked the government for what it calls “financial mismanagement”. “Modi government’s gross financial mismanagement is also killing consumption and purchasing power, encouraging deflation, plunging exports, stagnating investment, terminated manufacturing growth and lowered the faith of people in the banking sector,” Vallabh said.
“There are no jobs. Farmers are extremely distress. Rural sector is anguished...The countdown for Modi government’s exit has begun, even though it is trying to clutch at straws by announcing one jumla, after another,” he said.
