India needs strong, decisive govt to take swift decision, maintain high growth: Jaitley
New Delhi, Oct 16 : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Tuesday said India needs a strong and decisive leadership at the Centre to continue its high growth path and take swift decisions.
Outlining the challenges for India, Jaitley said being a net buyer of oil, a rise in global crude prices adversely impacts the country and hence the economy has to be resilient to deal with it.
"If this path of high growth trajectory is to continue...if these higher growth, higher revenues and higher resources have to continue, better infrastructure objective has to be achieved, India needs a strong and decisive leadership at the Centre.
"A weak leadership, within days of crisis, could not have handled IL&FS the way the present government did, and therefore a crisis in the making was handled with swiftness," Jaitley said in his address to the AGM of industry chamber Assocham.
Debt-ridden IL&FS and its group companies have defaulted on loan repayments, following which the government superseded its Board by appointing eminent banker Uday Kotak as its Chairman.
Talking about the political challenges facing the country, Jaitley said these are thrown up by unstable coalition and aspiring politicians, who want to acquire the top place.
"Therefore, today what India needs is not individuals with lack of understanding of policies, lack of understanding of directions or inherently unstable coalition, but a government and leadership with absolute clarity about the direction so that this unique position which IMF refers to as a sweet spot in the world, this sweet spot we continue to occupy for next two decades," he said.
Jaitley said if India continues on high growth path, then the country can get rid of poverty and can become a developed country.
"You need a decisive government, you need a government which has a coherent policy and is absolutely clear in the direction you have to move, and you need a government which is not dependent on those who would try to pull the government down by their strategies," Jaitley said in his video conference address.
Indian economy grew at 8.2 per cent in the April-June quarter of current fiscal. It grew at 6.7 per cent in 2017-18 fiscal.
Stating that domestic policies of certain countries have spillover effects on India, Jaitley hoped that such effects will not be everlasting and are transient in character.
"As a fast growing economy we have the capacity to face these challenges," he said.
Jaitley said global oil prices have risen on account of "artificial shortages" and it has adversely impacted India. India imports 83 per cent of its oil needs.
"Therefore we have to face that challenge by making our economy so resilient itself that we have the capacity to bear that challenge," he added.
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Kulkarni became victim of BJP conspiracy as he grew politically in North Karnataka: Shivakumar
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Bengaluru (PTI): Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar claimed on Friday that Congress MLA Vinay Kulkarni, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in a murder case, has become a victim of a BJP conspiracy because he was growing politically in the north Karnataka region.
Stating that he has faith in Kulkarni and believes he has done nothing wrong, he said the former minister will fight the case legally by filing an appeal.
A Bengaluru court on Friday sentenced Kulkarni and fifteen others to life imprisonment in the BJP leader Yogeshgouda Goudar murder case.
On Wednesday, Santhosh Gajanan Bhat, Judge of the Special Court for cases involving elected representatives, convicted Kulkarni and others under various IPC sections, including criminal conspiracy and murder.
“I respect the court. But there was a big conspiracy in this case. When the police were about to file a B-report, the CBI was given the case to harass him (Kulkarni). Vinay Kulkarni has become a victim of a BJP conspiracy as he was growing politically in north Karnataka,” Shivakumar said.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, he said Kulkarni has several legal options.
“I have spoken to his family. He swore on God and told me that he had not done anything wrong. I still have faith in him. I feel that he has not done anything wrong. He has an opportunity to file an appeal,” he said, adding that he stands with Kulkarni’s family and supporters and believes he will get justice.
The case pertains to the killing of Goudar, a BJP zilla panchayat member, in Dharwad on June 15, 2016. Kulkarni was a minister at the time. Hired assailants allegedly attacked and hacked Goudar to death in his gym in Saptapur, Dharwad.
Following demands from Goudar’s family and others, the then-BJP government transferred the case to the CBI in 2019.
Veteran BJP leader and former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, under whose tenure the case was handed over to the CBI, told reporters in Chikkamagaluru, “I said what I needed to say when the crime happened, and what I said—that the guilty should be punished and justice should be served—has proven true.”
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, BJP leader and MLC C T Ravi, reacting to the court order, said, “Justice delayed, but not denied.”
