PANJIM: Soon after the launch of National Forum by former Union Finance and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and former Union Health and Shipping Minister and BJP MP from Patna Sahib and cinestar Shatrughan Sinha have started doing the rounds of the length and breadth of the country to garner support from those who are unhappy with the present regime, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah.
Goa was one such stop where the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) showed open support to the National Forum and its thoughts on how the country was virtually “misled” by the Modi-Shah duo.
Addressing an impressive crowd by Goa standards and assuring them that “their troubles will be over very soon,” Yashwant touched upon “Indian economy and challenges before democracy”, the subject for the event. However, he said, “Indian economy is itself becoming a challenge before our democracy”. He questioned the media for not expressing their views at the national level.
Without naming either Modi or Shah, the former Union finance minister acclaimed, “We cannot trust the figures put up by the present government. If you look the growth figure was revised in 2015 and the only comparable figure, which is made available to us, is the growth figure of 2013-14, which was the last year of the UPA regime. If one looks at that, then that year’s growth figure was revised from about 4.7 per cent to 6.5 per cent. I have heard people say that how have we arrived to this figure. It had been said that statistically it had gone up by 200 basis points and the only indication of this was the upward revision of 2013-14 figure. Then, for 2014-15, we started calculating on this new basis and there was no calculation on the basis of previous year.”
On the employment generation issue, the present government also “fudged the figures. The labour bureau, which collects data by visiting door-to- door on employment, has been asked not to collect the data as the government does not go by the EPFO figures, which is not a correct way for getting the true data,” added Sinha, who recently resigned from the BJP.
On the agrarian distress, Yashwant, who recently led farmers agitation in Maharashtra, warned that “the farmers’ issue is so serious that 110 farmers’ organisations in the country have come together to launch “Village Bandh” and from June 1 to 10, the farmers are not going send their produce to the market.
“Farmers have also decided not to go to urban areas to buy any produce. There is a complete divide between the rural and urban areas with this movement. Is this good for the country?” he asked.
Sarcastically, the former Union finance minister mentioned that, “in a country, which is the fastest growing economy of the world, how come the bank NPAs touched a figure of Rs 9 lakh crore? It is growing at the rate of Rs 1.5 lakh crore for the last four years. I too had inherited this legacy when I was the finance minister. The formula was to stem the tide and then start pushing it back. Nothing at all like this has happened in last four years.” He also raised the issue of EVMs and said that there is a trust deficit in EVMs.
On issues of disruption of Parliament, Yashwant blamed the present government for “cutting down on the number of days in Parliament session, especially the budget session to avoid the questions. Only four working days were given to pass the Finance Bill. Has anyone bothered to find out who were disrupting the Parliament?
Sitting BJP MP, Shatrughan quipped that he wants to talk but cannot say his “mann ki baat” but “I will do dil ki baat (heart talk). “Whatever I talk, I talk in the national interest to show my party the mirror. It is a democracy and everyone has the right to express,” said Shatrughan. He also gave a wakeup call and “food for thought” and assured the people that “You move ahead and we are with you.”
Those who also contributed to this thought process were noted socialist, Ravinder Manchanda, Manoj Kamat and Elvis Gomes, the convenor of AAP in Goa.
