Some thought they were born to rule, says Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Labelling the critics of Narendra Modi government as “compulsive contrarians” present in the political system and those who “managed to penetrate into positions of influence irrespective of the government in power,” senior BJP leader and Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday accused them of manufacturing falsehood and subverting democracy by weakening a sovereign elected government.

“There are some in the political system who thought that they were born to rule...There are those who had managed to penetrate into positions of influence irrespective of the government in power. Some who were part of the ideological left and the ultra-left obviously found the new government wholly unacceptable. Hence emerged a new class of Compulsive Contrarians. The Contrarians believed that this government could do no good. Every act of it must be opposed,” he wrote in a Facebook post titled ‘The Compu-lsive Contrarian and his Manufactured Logic.’

Mr Jaitley further wrote that these ‘compulsive contrarian’ manufacture falsehood, concoct arguments, masquerade corruption as crusade and adopt double standards to suit them.

Mr Jaitley, who is in the US for a medicial check-up, said while free speech and the right to dissent are critical components of a democracy but falsehood, subversion and institutional destruction are not. The minister said that nations are built by those with positive mindsets and a national vigor, not by the compulsive contrarians.

Citing issues including allegations linked in the Justice Loya death, 10 per cent reservation to general category, Rafale deal, CBI issue, press conference by four Supreme Court judges and the RBI debate, Mr Jaitley said the compulsive contrarians believe that every act of the Modi government must be opposed.

Without naming any political opponent or outfit, Mr Jaitley said these compulsive contrarians picked holes in every proposal that empowered people or strengthened country.

“These actions reveal the mindset of the compulsive contrarians. Weakening a sovereign elected government and strengthening the unelectable is only a subversion of democracy,” he wrote.

Mr Jaitley questioned, “Didn’t left-liberals find fault with the various actions that Gandhiji took during the freedom movement?”

Referring to the controversy over untimely death of Justice Loya, Mr Jaitley said that every fact alleged in the public space by the compulsive contrarians was “manufactured”. “The Judge died a natural death due to a cardiac stroke,” he said.

Accusing critics of concocting falsehood in the Rafale jet deal, the minister said, “This is a deal where Mr should be credited with saving thousands of crores of the country.”

On the issue of infighting in the CBI and the subsequent transfer of its chief, Mr Jaitley said it is the duty of the sovereign government to ensure the cleaning-up of each of the investigative agencies and the government was only concerned with their accountability and integrity while the contrarians chose to side with the questionable.    

He said Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge as a petitioner in the CBI chief’s case before the Supreme Court should have recused himself from sitting on the committee, which took a decision regarding the transfer of CBI chief.

Referring to the press conference by the four judges, Mr Jaitley said it has done “more damage to India’s judicial institutions than many would have envisaged. It brought judges into public gaze as factionalised and battling for their own turf space”.

On the recent rift with the Reserve Bank, he said there have been many instances when the government has differed with the Reserve Bank.

“The government in recent months have strongly felt that certain sectors of the economy needed credit and liquidity support. Squeezing out both would eventually hurt this sector as also hurt growth,” the finance minister noted.