Sinha criticises Modi govt yet again, Shotgun supports him too

The son, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha defended the government's economic policies, stating that it is undertaking structural reforms which are “necessary to create a ‘New India’ and provide good jobs for our billion-strong workforce.”

But the father, Senior BJP leader and former FM Yashwant Sinha attacked Modi government on second consecutive day: this time for its failure on policy front. Lambasting the government for down sliding of the economy and rise of unemployment, he said the previous government cannot be blamed for Modi government’s poor performance.

Talking to the news agency ANI, the former minister and bureaucrat said, “policy paralysis prevailed in the time of UPA-2, and people hoped that Modi government will act decisively but we cannot see the growth/development.”

Raising concerns over Non Performing Assets (NPA), he said that it had affected private investment adversely. “We need to control NPA as early as possible but the government has not taken any step in this regard. 40 banks are on the brink of bankruptcy. We are still waiting for the time when condition of the public-sector banks would be improved.”

In his interview, Sinha also took jibe at Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal for their knowledge of the economy. “may be Rajnath and Goyal may have better understanding of the economy than me but I am not with their ideas,” he said while reiterating that GST and demonetisation has caused serious damage to the economy.

“Pace of the economy has been very slow in last one and a half years. Demonetisation was announced at the time when economy was already shrinking…we were trying to recover from the Note bandi blow but government announced GST…GST is proving dipterous for us,” he commented.

Meanwhile, BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha has also come out in support of his party colleague Yashwant Sinha over his criticism of the state of economy, saying he was a true statesman and had shown the government the mirror.

The Bihar MP, who has been at variance with the BJP's stand on a host of issues, also targeted his party leaders for dismissing the former finance minister’s views, saying it would be “childish” to do so as they were “entirely in the party’s and national interest”.

Taking a dig at the government in a series of tweets, he claimed motives were being ascribed to Yashwant's observations and “we all know that the infamous and pervasive dirty tricks department” was behind them :