Under attack from the Congress and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday lashed out at both — the former for obstructing legislation and the latter for being the driver of what he termed “the lumpenisation of public discourse.”
In a blog titled “Stray thoughts after the winter session,” Mr. Jaitley invoked India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru while castigating his party for blocking legislation, especially the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill.
Lies with vulgar overtones cannot hide truth: Jaitley
“If Pandit Nehru can be credited with having laid down healthy precedents established, the current generation in control of his party will find a place in history for having weakened what their ancestors have established,” Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley wrote in a blog post critical of the Congress and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
“The last two sessions have witnessed a clear stand of the Congress that Parliament shall not be allowed to function. Most of the Congress leaders, in private, have expressed helplessness over the decision of their leadership that Parliament must be disturbed continuously. The moot question which arises for the Congress is, ‘how does India legislate’,” Mr. Jaitley wrote.
Taking the example of the GST Bill, he said it had been approved by the standing committee and referred to an all-party select committee of the Rajya Sabha. This panel too approved the Bill in the monsoon session, yet the legislation had not passed the muster of the Upper House. Mr. Jaitley said the government, therefore, had adopted an alternative option of a joint committee to consider the bankruptcy law.
For Mr. Kejriwal, the words were even sharper. While praising his own party for having managed to rein in motor mouths, Mr. Jaitley said the Delhi Chief Minister “lowered the level of discourse.”
“It cannot be couched in vulgarity. Falsehood delivered with vulgar overtones cannot be a substitute for truth,” he wrote. Mr. Kejriwal had called the Prime Minister “a coward and a psychopath” after his Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar’s office was raided by the CBI last week. Mr. Jaitley said it was time there was public outrage against lowering of the level of public discourse.
