Yashwant Sinha Takes On The Modi Government

Veteran BJP leader and former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has likened the Narendra Modi-led government to that of former Congress Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. It's a “government of freebies” he said in an interview to Sanjay Pugalia, editorial director at Quintillion Media.

Two days after Prime Minister Modi responded to those criticising his management of the economy, Yashwant Sinha said the Prime Minister's speech selectively chose data points that supported his narrative. “The very same day that the Prime Minister spoke, the Reserve Bank of India released its commentary on the economy. If you compare what the Prime Minister said, and what the RBI released, there's a wide gap in the assessment of the two.”

He put the upturn in September tractor sales and the PMI reading for the same month down to restocking once the Goods and Services Tax was in place,  adding that the changes made by the GST Council on Friday, were after done after the government faced immense public pressure.

Responding to Prime Minister Modi's statement on Wednesday that the government's focus is on empowerment and not freebies, Yashwant Sinha compared the current regime to that of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Congress. “This government is doing no work other than distributing freebies, in the 100-125 schemes that it is running,” he contended, warning that the country cannot be developed on government spending alone.

In a speech on September 28, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had called Yashwant Sinha “a job applicant at 80”. Sinha hit back at that, calling age “just a number”, pointing out that he continues to address public gatherings.

You can watch the full interview here.