Countering allegations made by Rahul Gandhi at a rally in Mandsaur, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday questioned the Congress president’s knowledge and gave a point-by-point rebuttal to his speech. In a Facebook post titled “How Much Does He Know”, Jaitley wrote, “Every time I listen to the view of Shri Rahul Gandhi, both inside and outside Parliament, I ask myself the same question — How much does he know? When will he know? Listening to his speech delivered in Madhya Pradesh today reaffirms my curiosity about the answer. Is he being inadequately briefed or is he being a little too liberal with his facts.” Jaitley countered the Congress president’s allegations on the issues of farm loans, loans given to industrialists, unemployment and connectivity between the cities and villages. On Rahul’s accusation that the Prime Minister waived off loans worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore of 15 top industrialists, the minister wrote, “The government has not waived off a single rupee due from any industrialist. The facts are to the contrary. Those who owed money to the banks and other creditors have been declared insolvent and removed from their companies by IBC enacted by Prime Minister Modi’s government. These loans were given largely during UPA.” Countering the charge that loans were not available to farmers, but only to industrialists, he wrote, “This was during the UPA government, particularly UPA II, when bulk of amount constitute the NPAs today were given by the banking system during the period 2008-14. From 2014 we have been systematically taking one step after the other to recover these monies back.” The minister also countered the allegation that the Prime Minister has given Rs 35,000 crore each to two diamond jewellers saying, “This banking fraud started in the year 2011 when the UPA II was in power.” Replying to Rahul’s claim that if the Congress comes to power mobile phones ‘made in China’ would be manufactured in India, Jaitley said that in 2014, there were only two mobile phone manufacturing units in India, but now there are 120 units. He also asserted that the latest GDP data has re-emphasised that India is the fastest growing economy in the world. “There is a double-digit growth in construction, expansion in manufacturing, an increased capital formation which indicates investment increase, large investment in physical infrastructure and increased investment in rural India. All these are job creating sectors,” he wrote. Read | Will waive farmers’ debts in 10 days if Congress comes to power in MP: Rahul Gandhi in Mandsaur Taking a dig at Rahul over his comments on connectivity, Jaitley wrote, “Madhya Pradesh had the worst set of roads in India when the Congress was voted out in 2003. Thanks to Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Prime Minister Modi who during the NDA Government, has tripled the investment in rural roads.” Later, the Congress hit back at Jaitley over his Facebook post. In a statement titled “How much does Arun Jaitley know?”, Congress communication department head Randeep Surjewala said the “Union minister without portfolio, with zero knowledge of agriculture is giving ‘GYAN’ to the nation again today, with his usual travesty of facts and trivialization of farmers’ issues.” Read | Family of deceased farmer say SDM warned them against going for Rahul Gandhi’s Mandsaur rally “Has arrogance of power reached such a zenith where BJP is blind to farmer distress? How are empty worded blogs an answer to betrayal of farmers. Modi government wrote off loans of a handful of crony friends worth Rs 2.41 lakh crore as per reply given to Parliament by Finance Ministry as recently as on April 3, 2018,” Surjewala said.
