HYDERABAD: While suggesting the measures the Central government should adopt to ensure that India becomes a superpower by 2030, Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday described GST as the ‘biggest madness of the 21st century’ and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to invest in agriculture to give more impetus to the economy.
Delivering a talk on “India, a superpower by 2030”, organised by Pragna Bharati, Swamy indirectly blamed country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for adopting the Soviet Union model of economy, which according to him, works by ‘extracting resources from agriculture and investing it in industry’.
“The model did not work in even Soviet Union. In fact, the Soviet Union disintegrated into several nations,” the BJP leader said.
However, the Rajya Sabha MP maintained that investing in agriculture and providing cash to the farmers and labourers would help in kick-starting the economy.
“With more cash comes more purchasing power, which would translate into more demand,” Swamy explained.
He said that he has recommended the policy of investing more in agriculture to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but he paid no heed to it.
“Maybe when other measures don’t work, he may take this up,” he said.
As of now, Swamy explained, the Central government needs to do ensure that the economy grows at 10 per cent per annum, remove income tax -- which he termed as a major source of corruption, and also simplify GST.
“We need to fight corruption. Second, reward those who invest. Don’t terrorise them (investors) with income tax and this GST, which is the biggest madness of the 21st century. This GST is so complicated (that) nobody understands which form to fill where,” Swamy said.
Bharat Ratna for PV
Swamy pitched for Bharat Ratna for former PM PV Narasimha Rao, saying that Manmohan Singh, when he was Finance Minister in Rao’s Cabinet, implemented the reforms in the 1990s.
“After that (PV’s regime), we have been achieving eight per cent growth from time to time. But we have not improved on the reforms that Rao brought in. We need to do it now. Your question is will we be an economic superpower by 2030 in 10 years? Of course, we can (achieve that goal),” he said while demanding that Narasimha Rao be honoured with the Bharat Ratna for the economic reforms introduced during his tenure.