How would Ola, Uber cause truck sales to plummet: Yashwant Sinha
Indore, Sep 14: Former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha on Saturday questioned Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's claim that rise of Ola and Uber affected the automobile sector, asking why the sales of trucks should also decline.
Those in power were making "weird" statements, the former finance minister said, talking to reporters here.
"People in the government are making weird statements.
These statements will not lead to betterment of economy. But they will definitely affect the government's image," he said.
On Sitharaman's statement about decline in the automobile sector, where she spoke about people using app- based cab services instead of buying car as one of the causes, Sinha asked, "If companies like Ola and Uber caused a drop in passenger vehicle sales, then why there is a slowdown in sales of two-wheelers and trucks?"
"Bihar's finance minister (Sushil Modi) said there is recession due to Sawan-Bhado (the rainy season). A Union minister (Piyush Goyal) is talking about Einstein's law of gravity," the former BJP leader said.
Sinha also raised a question about Sitharaman's announcement to organize a mega-shopping festival in India on the lines of Dubai Shopping Festival to boost exports.
"The economies of UAE (United Arab Emirates) and India are different. India's economy will progress only when farmers in areas like Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh progress," he said.
"We should have grown at a rate of at least eight percent. But in the first quarter of the financial year, the GDP growth has come down to five percent," he said.
The missing three percent growth meant loss of Rs 6 lakh crore in just one quarter, he claimed.
Asked about the government's plan to merge certain public sector banks, he said, "I am not opposed to merger. But it will not reduce their non performing assets automatically."
The process may in fact harm the banks as their officials will get tied up in completing merger formalities instead of focusing on actual banking, Sinha said.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
