NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi and finance minister Arun Jaitley exchanged barbs over the debate if ease of doing business in India had improved or not under the NDA rule.
The Congress vice president slammed Jaitley saying ease of doing business had been ruined due to the government’s demonetisation and GST decisions. The remark came a day after Jaitley cited a World Bank report to hail the government’s policies.
“Yesterday Arun Jaitleyji said some foreign organisation has certified that India has considerably improved in ease of doing business. The finance minister should meet small and mid-sized businessman for 5-10 minutes and ask if the situation had really improved,” Rahul said while campaigning in Gujarat.
As Congress spokesperson Rajeev Shukla questioned the government’s claims saying the World Bank report only covered Delhi and Mumbai and did not factor the impact of GST and demonetisation, union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad slammed Gandhi, saying the Congress vice president doesn’t know that the ease of doing business report is prepared by the World Bank and not the government.
Jaitley hit back saying three years of NDA were marked by transparency instead of UPA which was known for scams.
“Rahul Gandhi should know that economy is a serious business and it should not be made shallow or hollow by him due to lack of home work by him or by his script writers,” Prasad said.
Shukla said the government should instead study the condition of small businesses and also comment on a recent UN report which showed India has slipped on hunger index.
Rahul also targeted PM Modi saying most sections of Gujarat society were protesting as only a few big corporates had benefitted under the BJP rule.
Citing an example, Rahul said Modi as chief minister of the state had given a loan of Rs 33,000 crore to Tatas to set up plant to make Nano car, which was not visible on rods, but could have used the amount to wave the loans of farmers.
Congress leader Kapil Sibal said the government was trying to paint a rosy picture as it wanted to cover up the real condtion of small businesses.