Arun Jaitley: Rahul Gandhi's campaign built on fake issues

New Delhi Accusing the Congress and its President Rahul Gandhi of raising manufactured issues in their electoral campaign Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said if those fake issues were taken out of Gandhis speech nothing will be leftIn a Facebook post Jaitley said that falsehood falls apart and that the overconfidence of opposition leaders undermining the electorates wisdom would not go unpunished in the Lok Sabha electionsRahul Gandhi has led not only his party but the entire opposition to rely on fake and manufactured issues They raise fake issues create an echo effect and then believe their falsehood to be true Its time that they come out of the cocoon of falsehood or perishes there he saidFake issues raised in Rafale Balakot Judge Loyas death bank loan waiver JNU issue EVM GST demonetisation or Nirav Modi and Mallya or be it the special status for Andhra Pradesh or the issues of economy every time fakery and manufactured issues of opposition fell apartIf fake issues are taken out of Rahul Gandhis speech nothing will perhaps be left he saidAccusing the opposition of underestimating the wisdom of the electorate Jaitley said the electorate would also underestimate Indias opposition parties and show them their placePoll campaigners must know that a campaign of fake issues never worksThe real strength of Indian democracy is the inherent wisdom of the voters They punish nonperformers and they vote back those who deliver Pollsters political pandits and commentators usually go wrong he addedJaitley said the National Democratic Alliance NDA government was led by a leader with whom the comfort level of the voters was high and hence the opposition was in a state of panic with its negative single point programme remove one manThe level of their ambition is limited Indian voters have huge potential to distinguish between truth and falsehood and they prefer fairness Political leaders are overconfident of their wisdom Little do they realise that the electorate is wiser than them Voters are capable of punishing those who resort to falsehood he saidExpressing confidence that the Bharatiya Janata Party under Prime Minister Narendra Modi would get a clear mandate in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls Jaitley said unlike many western democracies a sizeable section of Indias population was not permanently politically affiliated and their vote preferences varied from election to electionHe said that hung Assemblies and Parliament are predicted only in opinion polls and since the voter is far more decisive he endeavours to elect a government with a clear mandate with the frontrunner getting more seats than predictedIn a pointbypoint rebuttal of the oppositions electoral issues Jaitley rejected its contention that a costlier Rafale was purchased by the present government while giving favours to a domestic industrialist violating proceduresHe said both the Supreme Court and the Comptroller and Auditor General CAG cleared the deal rejecting all contentions of the oppositionOn the criticism that the BJP was politicising the terror attack in Pulwama and the Indian Air Force IAF strikes at Balakot in Pakistan and its demand that evidence of what happened at Balakot should be placed in the public domain Jaitley said the Indian armed forces consider it not in the interest of national security and military discipline that the details of military operations should be placed in public domainOn the oppositions allegations of waiving loans worth Rs 25 lakh crore of 15 industrialists he reiterated that not one rupee of loan has been waived and in fact the present government through its new Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code had recovered almost Rs 3 lakh crore worth of nonperforming assets NPAs in the last two yearsJaitley also rejected the oppositions charge of electronic voting machines EVMs being tampered with saying there was a problem with the political losersIt is the same machine with which the Congress party won the recent Assembly electionsOn the Goods and Services Tax GST which the opposition has labelled as a disaster the Finance Minister said all the opposition parties had supported it and it was a part of the Congress manifestoThe opposition alleges that demonetisation was a failure which caused tremendous hardship to the poor people Demonetisation caused hardship only to the holders of black money It helped in formalising the economy It hastened the digitisation of the Indian economy India today collects more taxes at lower rates and uses them for the benefit of the poor he saidOn the charge that Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya were helped by the BJP government Jaitley said that their crimes were committed when the United Progressive Alliance UPA was in power and it was the BJP government which was trying to bring them to justiceNobody who frauds India can escape he saidOn the issue of jobs he said India was the fastest growing economy in the world and its multiplier effect on jobs was very largeCatch up on all the latest 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