Former finance minister and a veteran BJP leader, Yashwant Sinha, has once again targetted the Centre’s Narendra Modi government on its economic policies.
Speaking at a public event in Vidarbha region, Sinha said called for ‘lokshakti’ (people’s power) to check ‘rajshakti’ (government).
Singling out the central government over implementation of GST and demonetisation, Sinha appealed for a ‘lok shakti’ movement which will keep a check on ‘rajsatta’ (government).
“Let us start this Lokshakti initiative from Akola.. As it is, we are already facing recession. And what are numbers (peddled by the government). Numbers can prove one thing and with the same numbers, the other side can also be proven,” Sinha was quoted by PTI.
Training his guns on Modi, the BJP leader said, “The head of our government in his recent hour-long speech cited numbers to show India’s progress, saying so many cars and motorcycles were sold. Does this mean that the country is progressing,” Sinha asked.
There was sale but was there any production, he asked.
“I was avoiding speaking about demonetisation (at this event) because after all what does one say about something which has failed. When we were in the opposition, we used to allege that there was tax terrorism and ‘raid raj’ by the then government. I have no words to express what is going on today as terrorism is the final word,” he said.
Sinha also added that GST could have been a “Good and Simple Tax” but the people in power made it a “Bad and Complicated Tax.”
It is the duty of the government to remove anomalies in GST implementation, Sinha said.
Sinha had slammed the Modi government’s economic policies particularly demonetisation and GST in a newspaper article. His criticism had caused huge controversy forcing the the prime minister to make changes in the tax slabs of the GST.
Commenting about his newspaper article, Sinha said that “People felt that I said what they feel.”
“I come from Jharkhand where farmers do not commit suicide. But in the recent few days I do not know what happened that the farmers there are committing suicide,” Sinha said.