Yashwant Sinha asks others to speak up

New Delhi: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent out an “all is well on the economic front” message and blamed a handful of people for their “pessimism”, former finance minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha launched another blistering attack on the government and exhorted others to muster the “courage” to speak up.

Speaking at the launch of former UPA information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari’s book on Thursday, the bureaucrat-turned-politician declared, “Fear and democracy don’t go together.”

The BJP reacted sharply, saying that Mr Sinha has found a new ally in the Congress.

“It has become clear today from where he is drawing all his wisdom. His presence at an event of a Congress leader shows that who are influencing his economics. This is very unfortunate,” BJP spokesperson Anil Baluni said.

Interestingly, Mr Sinha had said at the event that “...the company in which I am being photographed will send a message (to the party leadership)”.

And daring the BJP to take action against him, Mr Sinha said, “That’ll be the best day when BJP takes action against me. I am past that stage (of being afraid).”

“I only want to say, if we are talking in terms of Mahabharata, I cannot watch in silence like Bhishmapitamah when Draupadi was subjected to cheerharan (disrobed). I won’t let the same happen (with economy),” Mr Sinha said on a TV channel.

The Prime Minister, in his address to the Institute of Company Secretaries of India on Wednesday, had said that his critics were suffering from “shalya vrutti” — they “sleep well only after they spread a feeling of pessimism all around”.

At Mr Tiwari’s book event, where Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was in attendance, Mr Sinha, exhorted others to muster the “courage” to speak up.

Taking a dig at the government’s “Stand up India” programme, he said that the time to stand up for people has come.

Mr Sinha, who had stirred a hornet’s nest last week by attacking finance minister Arun Jaitley’s economic decisions, responded to the finance minister’s jibe that he was a job applicant at 80. Mr Sinha called this a ploy to divert attention from the real issue of economic mess.

He added, “First it was pitting father against son, then it was job applicant. When all this failed, a gentleman spoke for one-and-a-half hours on Wednesday evening (referring to the Prime Minister).”

Speaking at the event, Mr Kejriwal said that a political churning is in process, and it will soon be visible.

Once again taking a dig at demonetisations, he said, “We have said from day one — that demonetisation is the biggest scam in Independent India. Now it has been proven that it has been a disaster.”

Mr Tewari, while responding to a question on dynasty politics in his party and the elevation of Rahul Gandhi, said, “There have been elections in the party and there is a process at play which will soon culminate.”