Congress engages in corruption, then denies and obstructs

One good thing about Indian democracy is that you don’t do politics in committees says senior BJP leader and former union finance minister Yashwant Sinha tells The New Indian Express Editorial Director Prabhu Chawla during Teekhi Baat on IBN 7. Excerpts: :

When I read the standing committee report, I felt that you want to help the government, unleash reforms, bring the insurance and other bills. But, if we follow your speeches, we feel Yashwant Sinha only wants the government to fall.

You will have to see both the things in different light. The standing committee of parliament is an all party committee. In every standing committee, a member makes a point of view moving above the party and the political viewpoint. The whole committee felt that these decisions need to be taken to bring about an improvement in the economy. That report was made and presented before the parliament. And the political viewpoint that you are talking about, differs from the committee’s point of view, in that I protest.

You don’t do politics in committee, but do it outside.

This is a very good thing about the Indian democracy. Generally, there is no politics in committees.

You did not let the past session of Parliament happen. Instead of a constructive attitude, you attempt to cripple the government by opposing on every issue. Isn’t this a result of the shock that the party is in.

I don’t know on what basis are you saying that. What we decide in committee, we don’t support it in the House.

The whole session was a washout.

No, even then, two bills were passed. I personally know that there was a consensus, and those two bills were passed.

The IIT one, AIIMS type institution, in which your states too were going to get benefit.

There were two bills that were passed. Let me explain to you the working of the government, based on my knowledge. This government brought the Direct Access Code Bill, which was initiated when Chidambaram was finance minister, then it came to Pranab Mukherjee, he finalised it and presented it before the Parliament. Then it came to our committee, our committee gave a serious thought to it, gave its request to the House, and with satisfaction I want to tell that the requests, recommendations that we gave, were welcomed, that they were mature recommendations. After that it went to the government, the government put the General Anti-Avoidance Rules chapter in the budget, which should not have been done, after that when Pranab Mukherjee relinquished charge, Manmohan Singh came, formed Parsarthy Shome Committee, to look into the issue, and then said to postpone it for three years. Now the incumbent finance minister is saying: We will not implement the Direct Access Code Bill from April 1, 2013, we postpone it. An example, where you present the bill after putting thought to it, but still it is not passed, so what is the use of discussing it so many times.

What do you mean to say?

I want to say that without thinking or understanding, as far as legislations are concerned, this government acts first, then starts thinking.

In the country’s interest, you talk of nation’s interest

I want the nation’s economic progress. I want to give you an example, their Pension Fund Bill, which would not have been presented in the Lok Sabha, if the BJP would not have given immediate support. After that when Pranab Mukherjee was finance minister, he held discussions, we told them to accept some suggestions, he immediately agreed to those, even then who are holding these bills till today? These have been held by their alliance partner Trinamool Congress, and then what should we do now?

What happens in stock market, if it rises Yashwant Sinha’s popularity rises, otherwise it comes down. Even P Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh watch the stock markets .

Stock market has to be seen and programmes like Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana should also be started. Who started Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana? Who introduced Kisan Credit Card ? If today, twelve crore farmer families have Kisan Credit Card, sir that work of the NDA government. If today the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana is reaching every village, that is our work. If we started the water shed mission, we started it so that the irrigation should spread across farms. We started to make godowns, so that farmers should benefit. We have taken a lot of steps for the farmers benefit.

Even after that more farmers are committing suicide, irrigation is still inadequate, there is no rainfall and people are in trouble.

If in six years, we would have solved all the problems of the world, then it would have been the end of history. One needs time, the work that has not been done in 40-45 years, it takes time to do that. It is not an easy issue

You said you did lot of good work. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana was most successful, a lot of roads were made, which were not made later after that. But even then, you lost two elections, one after the other, somewhere there is something amiss.

You have asked a very good question, let me supplement it, during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee times, very good work did happen of building national highways.

11 km road per day average road was made.

Yes, after that start form West Bengal to Haryana, Punjab, I saw the figures, national highway number two, which is also known as Sher Shah Suri Marg, it had 14 such constituencies, in which Bharatiya Janata Party had won, in the 1998 elections, in the 2004 elections, we lost all those seats. Why? Road were made, it is not that the road wasn’t made, road was made, but the people did not link the road with the votes. This is a big question which you should think on that what you are saying is development, how much it affected voting during elections?

Let me come to Coalgate, does corruption work then? You did not let the parliament function on the issue of coal gate. Many of your chief ministers are involved in that In New Indian Express, we published a letter of Munda saab, that give a certain coal block to certain company, it was allotted in two days.

You are doing a big mistake, it is a duty of the chief minister of a state to request, the decision is to happen in the central government. When did we say that if somebody made a request that means that every request is wrong, I am saying it is a matter of investigation that which request was wrong and which was right. And today a CBI investigation is on because of the appeal made by two BJP MP’s, Prakash Javdekar and Hansraj Ahir, they first wrote a letter to CVC, and then CVC told the CBI to investigate. The investigation is happening because we demanded. If we had something to hide, would our two MP’s come ahead and demand an investigation. And today in the CBI investigation, the facts that are coming forward, layer by layer, who is getting exposed in that?

But this time you have not made demand for JPC for coalgate.

We are not demanding, because there is no meaning of JPC. It has become political, PAC has become political. The way of working of the Congress party, that is to engage in corruption and then to keep on denying it.. And then create form problem in the investigation,

You engage in tit for tat politics.

Tit for tat will happen in today’s politics. Because even in the Congress, the current Prime Minister is such a big economist. Show me his one statement on what Yashwant Sinha did during NDA tenure when they were in opposition, and then tell us that we should not oppose. When we increased prices, did you welcome me on Vijay Chowk, and garland me? What did you do? You used to with a garland of shoes.