Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal addresses members of the All-India Bullion Jewellers and Swarnkar Federation at a protest organised against the proposed hike in excise duty on jewellery at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Sunday. (Photo: Pritam Bandyopadhyay)
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal addresses members of the All-India Bullion Jewellers and Swarnkar Federation at a protest organised against the proposed hike in excise duty on jewellery at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Sunday. (Photo: Pritam Bandyopadhyay)
Taking a dig at the ruling BJP over the contentious issue of excise duty on non-silver jewellery, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “leave” Union finance minister Arun Jaitley’s side if he did not want to lose the support of traders.
Gold traders, jewellers and artisans have been observing strike since March 2, demanding rollback of the budgetary proposal that has impacted the trade.
Addressing a gathering of jewellers at Jantar Mantar here, Mr Kejriwal warned the BJP of “erosion” in its support base among traders and wondered if Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Mr Modi had any differences at all as the ruling BJP was “implementing” the policies of the UPA dispensation.
“The notion was that the BJP is a party of traders. Then what has happened now I want to tell the PM that Jaitleyji will not have to gather votes or contest elections. You need votes so please be a little careful. If jewellers are cheated, then traders will leave the BJP’s side,” Mr Kejriwal said.
The Aam Aadmi Party convenor’s address, peppered with sharp jibes at the PM and his pet projects such as Make in India, was lapped up by a sizeable crowd that repeatedly raised slogans against Mr Modi and Mr Jaitley.
Mr Kejriwal claimed that BJP MPs and even Union ministers are in “favour” of the jewellers’ demands contrary to the PM’s “adamance”. “Even MPs are wondering as to what Jaitley has explained to the PM,” he said.
“The BJP is on one side and PM on the other. But why The PM is under the total control of Jaitley. I am smaller in terms of age, experience than Modiji but have a small suggestion for him. Please leave Jaitleyji’s side, he will take you down,” Mr Kejriwal said.
He also read out a series of tweets made by Mr Modi in his capacity as Gujarat chief minister where the latter had opposed a similar move by the erstwhile UPA government to impose one per cent excise duty on non-silver jewellery. “What has changed People thought the PM is with them but you have cheated them. The Congress used to impose excise duty and people brought you to power thinking you won’t repeat the same. But now that you have repeated the act, what difference is there between you and Sonia Gandhi ” Mr Kejriwal said.
Gold traders, jewellers and artisans have been observing strike since March 2 demanding a rollback of the budgetary proposal that has impacted the trade which, Mr Kejriwal said, runs into over '1 lakh crore.
The CM claimed that due to the Budget proposal having impacted their business severely, four to five traders have committed “suicide” in the last one month. “Some jeweller friends told me that one more person committed suicide last evening over the policies,” he said.
The BJP hit out at the chief minister for attacking Mr Jaitley, saying the AAP leader's comments were a result of the finance minister’s defamation suit filed against him.
The ruling party at the Centre also said the chief minister was using jewellers as a “political tool” and has little concern for their demands. “Jaitley has filed a '10-crore defamation case against him. These remarks are a result of that frustration,” BJP secretary Shrikant Sharma said.
