Launching a counter attack on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for terming demonetisation as “foolish,” Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Friday called for a countrywide debate on whether acting against black money and corruption was foolish or either keeping quiet or being a collaborator in the scams was foolish.
“The country has to debate on this,” Mr. Naidu told a press conference here.
Pointing out that the country witnessed a series of alleged scams including those related to 2-G spectrum allocation, coal and urea during the then UPA regime, he wondered if keeping quiet or being a collaborator in scam was a foolish act or acting against such scams was a foolish act?
“I want to ask the Congress Party as well as Mr. Gandhi what is foolish? Is acting against drug mafia, black money, trafficking of women and children, hoarders foolish?” he remarked.
If they were confident that whatever the government had done was foolish, why didn’t they debate the issue in Parliament and expose the government, he said.
“Instead, you are indulging in contempt against people of the country and democracy,” he remarked, while expressing dissatisfaction over the Opposition parties stalling the Parliament session over demonetisation issue.
He urged the Opposition to introspect and allow the Parliament to function.
Ridiculing Mr. Gandhi for his claims that he would “expose everything” if allowed to speak in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Naidu remarked: “Rahul wants to debate before the media and in the market, but not in the Parliament.”
He disapproved Mr. Gandhi’s allegations that the NDA government’s policies had claimed the lives of many farmers and said: “Let them state how many farmers died earlier in the Congress-ruled States of Karnataka and Maharashtra?”
Mr. Naidu also termed Mr. Gandhi’s allegations of demonetisation resulting in lay-offs for many employees in private companies as “factually incorrect.”
At the same time, he admitted that some people were facing inconvenience due to demonetisation. “These are the initial problems which would be overcome soon.”
Answering a query, he said the incidents of money laundering in some States including Karnataka were a matter of concern. The Centre would act sternly against bank officials involved in these cases.
Meanwhile, Mr. Naidu refused to make any comments on the prospects of BJP in Tamil Nadu politics saying that it was too early to take up such a discussion.
