Jaitley lashes out at critics of NDA govt, calls them ‘compulsive contrarians’

Team Udayavani, Jan 17, 2019, 10:44 AM IST

New Delhi: Terming the critics of the Modi dispensation as ‘compulsive contrarians’, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Thursday accused them of manufacturing falsehood and subverting democracy by weakening a sovereign elected government.

Jaitley, who is in the US for a medicial check-up, in a Facebook post said while free speech and the right to dissent are critical components of a democracy but falsehood, subversion and institutional destruction are not.

Attacking those who believed that “this government could do no good”, the minister said nations are built by those with positive mindsets and a national vigor, not by the compulsive contrarians.

“The compulsive contrarians had no qualms about manufacturing falsehood. They could concoct arguments even if they went against the general interest of the country. They could masquerade corruption as crusade. They could adopt double standards whenever it suited them,” said the blog titled ‘The Compulsive Contrarian and his Manufactured Logic’.

Citing the tirade mounted by political parties on a host of issues including 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections, the Rafale jet deal, Jaitley said the compulsive contrarians believe that every act of the Narendra Modi-led government must be opposed.

He also listed out other key issues concerning Justice Loya case, the CBI issue, RBI debate, judicial activism while highlighting how the critics have launched a crusade against the government.

Without naming the Congress or other opposition parties, Jaitley said “there are some in the political system who thought that they were born to rule. Some who were part of the ideological left and the ultra-left obviously found the NDA government wholly unacceptable. Hence emerged a new class of compulsive contrarians, who run perpetual propaganda”.

They picked holes in every proposal that empowered people or strengthened country, be it 10 per cent reservation for the poor, Aadhaar, Demonetisation, GST, CBI issues, RBI and government relation, Rafale fighter aircraft, or no issues in Supreme Court or Judge Loya case, the minister said.

“These actions reveal the mindset of the compulsive contrarians. Weakening a sovereign elected government and strengthening the unelectable is only a subversion of democracy,” he wrote.

The senior BJP leader questioned, “Didn’t left-liberals find fault with the various actions that Gandhiji took during the freedom movement?” 

Referring to the controversy over untimely death of Justice Loya, Jaitley said that every fact alleged in the public space by the compulsive contrarians was “manufactured”. “The Judge died a natural death due to a cardiac stroke,” he said.

Accusing critics of concocting falsehood in the Rafale jet deal, the minister said, “This is a deal where Prime Minister Modi should be credited with saving thousands of crores of the country.” 

On the issue of infighting in the CBI and the subsequent transfer of its chief, Jaitley said it is the duty of the sovereign government to ensure the cleaning-up of each of the investigative agencies and the government was only concerned with their accountability and integrity. “The contrarians chose to side with the questionable.” 

He said Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge as a petitioner in the CBI chief’s case before the Supreme Court should have recused himself from sitting on the committee, which took a decision regarding the transfer of CBI chief.

Referring to the press conference by the four judges of the Supreme Court last year, Jaitley said it has done “more damage to India’s judicial institutions than many would have envisaged. It brought judges into public gaze as factionalised and battling for their own turf space”.

On the recent rift with the Reserve Bank, he said there have been many instances when the government has differed with the Reserve Bank.

“The government in recent months have strongly felt that certain sectors of the economy needed credit and liquidity support. Squeezing out both would eventually hurt this sector as also hurt growth,” the finance minister noted.

Every stakeholder in the market was in agreement with the government position but the contrarians deflected the credit and liquidity issue to the issue of autonomy, he said, adding that the government after all was only addressing the autonomous RBI and asking it to resolve the issues which lay in its domain.