{ Arun Jaitley } The last week was a full eventful week. The Prime Minister returned after a highly successful visit of three nations. India’s status in the Comity of Nations appears to have been enhanced. Both India and our Prime Minister were at the centre stage in the G20- meet at Brisbane. What better recognition should there be of India’s enhanced stature than President Obama agreeing to be the Chief Guest of India at our Republic Day Parade.
At home, our Ministers were working overtime to live up to the expectations of the Prime Minister and the people. The Raksha Mantri Shri Manohar Parikar took the NDA’s agenda forward of expediting defence procurement. The Power Minister Shri Piyush Goel, through various Coal and Power sector reforms has given a new direction to the Ministry where coal allocation and power generation stagnated, as a result of the despotic coal allocation policy under the UPA. The Commerce Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman succeeded in persuading the Americans to correct the imperfection in the Bali Text on trade facilitations. India’s Food Security Programme has been protected from the imperfection of the Bali Draft as a result of the Indo-US arrangement.
What was the Opposition doing during the last one week.
Congress Party: The Congress Party made three statements during the last week; firstly – they questioned why a public sector bank given credit to a particular business house. Since when has the issue of a creditor‘s willingness to given debt to a borrower, become an issue of public debate. It entirely depends upon the debtor-creditor relationship and the credit worthiness of the debtor. This showed a paucity of issues with the Congress Party; secondly, without reading relevant notifications, the Congress Party felt that Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) will be a boon for a black money. The notification of the Kisan Vikas Patra clearly shows the identity disclosure at the time of purchase of all Kisan Vikas Patras is necessary. If the KVP is purchased for more than Rs.50,000/-, PAN number has also to be given. There is no tax immunity in the matter of KVP purchase. Identity disclosures are necessary. It appears that the Congress Party had given reaction without reading the Notification. Thirdly, the Party was concerned how to block official business and legislation in Parliament. The Congress Party had damaged the national economy while in power and wants to pursue the same destructive direction while in opposition.
Trinamool Congress: I was deeply disappointed with Mamta Didi’s reaction to the interrogation and arrest of some of TMC leaders in the Sharada Chit Fund Scam. The TMC’s victory in Bengal was a reaction to the non-governance by the Left. Various political forces joined the TMC to get the left out. Some individuals connected with the TMC have been involved in making easy money from the Ponzi schemes. The schemes have looted small investors. As a new political Party, it was incumbent on any responsible leader to purge the Party of such leaders. It is regrettable that Mamta Didi instead of doing that has chosen identify herself with the cause of these leaders.
Similar is her reaction to the Burdwan blast. The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has arrested several people who have engineered the blast. They are enemies of the State. The West Bengal Police or the other intelligence agencies have no substantive material to establish that the blast was stage-managed? If there is no such material, why has Didi chosen to allege that the blast was stage managed? Such allegations clearly help the actual culprits. This is neither responsible nor Nationalistic.
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Introduction
Arun Jaitley
IntroductionUnion Minister for Finance
Union Minister for Corporate Affairs
and
Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting
Disclaimer : The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of INVC
