'In The Long Run, We Are All Dead', Says BJP Leader Yashwant Sinha On Demonetisation

'Its (demonetisation) effects were yet to subside and GST served as a second blow,' he said.

Updated on: 28 September 2017 12:59 pm

A day after senior BJP leader and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha lambasted Arun Jaitley for the 'economic mess' of the country, Sinha today said he had known for quite some time that India's economy has been on a decline.

Speaking on demonetisation, Sinha said it shouldn't have been implemented when the economy was weak, quoting John Keynes, "In the long run, we are all dead."

In the demonetisation debate last year, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said, "Those who say demonetisation is good in the long run should recall the quote: “In the long run we are all dead”.

'Its (demonetisation) effects were yet to subside and GST served as a second blow,' ANI quoted him as saying further.

Before 2014, I was the party's spokesperson when it came to Economic Affairs and we used to call the UPA situation the 'Policy Paralysis', ANI quoted Sinha as saying.

Now, we cannot blame the previous government because we have got the opportunity (to rectify), he further said.

Sinha also spoke on GST saying the GSTN (Goods and Services Tax Network) which is the backbone of the new tax break-up is failing.

I was a supporter of GST. Govt was in a hurry to implement it from July. Now, GSTN which is the backbone is failing, he said.

In an apparent displeasure at the working of present Finance minister Arun Jaitley, Sinha said "If you leave out Congress finance ministers then I am the only person who presented 7 budgets."

The former Finance Minister spoke about unemployment, saying that people want employment but whosoever they ask tells them there are no jobs.

On Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on the defensive, Sinha said, "Maybe Rajnath Singh & Piyush Goyal know economy more than me, so they think India is backbone of world's economy. I politely disagree."

Yashwant Sinha had on Wednesday wrote a scathing piece for the Indian Express where he says he would be ‘failing’ his ‘national duty’ if he did not speak out about the ‘mess’ that the current Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has made of the economy.

“The prime minister claims that he has seen poverty from close quarters. His finance minister is working over-time to make sure that all Indians also see it from equally close quarters.” he said in the article.

With Agency Inputs