Trust in Modi govt is dead, Rahul tells industrialists

Trust in the Narendra Modi government is dead and the people’s expectations lie shattered after three-and-a-half years of the BJP-led rule, Congress Vice-President said on Thursday, addressing industrialists.

“Business is about bringing people together, about creating harmony, about creating trust and competition. And the truth is, trust in this government is dead. For some reason the PM and his government are absolutely convinced that every single person in India is a thief,” he said, speaking at the annual session of the PHD Chamber of Commerce. He said Modi had failed to grasp a basic concept of the Indian economy: all cash is not black, and all black is not cash.

The Amethi MP said the primary focus of a “future Congress government” would be to create jobs, with MSMEs and SMEs being the central pillar of the process of employment generation.

“The government is creating a massive army of unemployed youth, which is toxic and dangerous. Instead of admitting they cannot and are not providing jobs they are riling communities against each other in a bloody rage,” he said.

Admitting to shortcomings in the UPA-II government of 2009-14, Rahul said his party’s government would initiate decentralisation of powers. He claimed that the Modi government had concentrated powers in the Prime Minister’s Office. He denied the charge that during UPA rule, all power rested at 10 Janpath, the official residence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, and added that decentralisation is the answer to many issues faced by industrialists in the country.

Attacking the Centre, Rahul said the manner in which the Modi regime is “working, or not working”, has led to a “double-tap killing” of the Indian economy. “Commandos in hostage situations fire what is called a double-tap — two quick, closely-placed shots fired at the chest to ensure that their terrorist target is dead. Modi and his government have fired a double-tap at the heart of our economy — first, the notebandi and then, a badly-conceptualised and implemented GST.”

The Congress leader also said that when small-, micro- and medium- businesses are “screaming in pain”, after the government unleashed a “tsunami of tax terrorism” with the GST, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley “has the nerve to go on TV” and tell people that things are just fine.

He said GDP growth had slowed, private investment collapsed, agriculture growth was at its lowest ebb and exports had declined under the Modi regime. “As if that was not enough, recent research by respected economists has shown that inequality in India is now at its highest levels in 100 years. We are staring at a disaster. I am not talking of technology making jobs redundant, as is happening in the West. This is a pure man-made disaster, or in Modi ji ’s terminology, an MMD, a ‘Modi-Made Disaster.”