Monday, Apr 29, 2024 | Last Update : 09:08 PM IST
Jaitley, Surjewala in war of words over attack on Rahul Gandhi
Mr Jaitley, in his article, had accused the Congress of becoming “ideologyless”.
New Delhi: Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and Congress leader Randeep Surjewala engaged in a verbal slugfest over the state of the economy on Thursday, with the Union minister advising the latter that “abuse is not the answer in political discourse” and the Opposition party leader accusing the government of “economic mismanagement”.
It all started after Mr Jaitley’s article on Wednesday where he took a dig at the Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi and claimed that India has emerged as the fastest growing economy from being among the “fragile five” during Congress led UPA regime. Mr Jaitley, in his article, had accused the Congress of becoming “ideologyless” and said it was because its “only obsession is a person called Narendra Modi”.
Reacting to the Union minister’s article, head of the Congress’s communication department Randeep Surjewala said Mr Jaitley’s “wasteful blogs are a clear case of finding lost political relevance by churning unadulterated lies” and accused the BJP and the Union minister of becoming “agenda-less, achievement-less and argument-less”.
On Thursday, Mr Jaitley advised the Congress leader through a tweet: “This is a political discourse. Abuse is not the answer. Please respond to the facts... surely the journey from India being part of the ‘fragile five’ and ‘policy paralysis’ to the world’s fastest growing economy could not be result of economic mismanagement - Another case of ignorance.”
To this, Mr Sujewala tweeted: “When you abuse and berate the Congress leadership, even Supreme Court and many others by distorting facts, it is ‘political discourse’ for you, but when you are shown the ‘mirror of truth’ with hard facts, you get ‘unner-ved’ & call it ‘abuse’? Politics of Convenience?”
To Mr Jaitley’s tweet on India emerging as the fastest growing economy, the Congress leader reacted: “Growth under Modi government is at four year low, Exports are in free fall, promise of 2 crore jobs is a ‘Jumla’, NPA’s are soaring to ?10 Lakh crore, investment is down, banks are paralysed and ‘loot scams’ a norm, GST flawed, Schemes failing! Isn’t this Economic Mismanagement?.”
