Union Cabinet 'biggest casualty' in Modi government: Sinha
Kolkata, Dec 9: Former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha Sunday accused the Narendra Modi government of destroying various institutions in the country, including the Union Cabinet.
Speaking at a talk show, 'Idea of Bengal', organised by the ruling Trinamool Congress, Sinha accused the prime minister of trying to "undermine" the Rajya Sabha during the passage of key bills.
"The Modi government has destroyed various institutions of the country. But the biggest casualty is the Union Cabinet," the former Union minister alleged.
"I am saying this because several important decisions are being taken without informing the Cabinet, be it the Rafale jet deal or demonetisation," added Sinha, who held the finance and external affairs portfolios in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
Parliament was the "second casualty" as the Modi government has "tried to undermine" the Rajya Sabha, during the passage of several important bills, Sinha said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not enjoy majority in the Upper House of Parliament.
Calling demonetisation a "disaster", Sinha said the government was trying to "dress up" the figures of economic growth to hide the "failures" of its economic policies.
"First they changed the methods by which GDP is calculated. Next when it came out that the UPA government performed better that the present regime, they withdrew the data from the website. Then the government fudged figures to put up a healthy picture of the economy," he said.
The Modi government has a "habit" of blaming the previous governments for all the wrong things that had "either happened or are happening" in the country, he added.
"In 2014, the government had given specific figures of the amount of NPAs, now again in 2018 they have come up with a new figure of NPAs till 2014. The idea is to put all the blame on the previous regimes," he said further.
Sinha stressed that West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee had "all traits" to make a good prime minister.
He hoped that West Bengal and TMC would play a major role in defeating Modi in the 2019 general elections.
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Trump says he ‘hasn’t even thought about’ continuing Iran ceasefire
Washington: US President Donald Trump has said he has not yet considered whether he would continue the ceasefire involving Iran, while also claiming the United States holds the advantage in negotiations.
Speaking to reporters, Trump said he was prepared to make a deal with “whoever is running the show” in Iran.
“They are fighting with each other, there’s tremendous infighting. They’re probably fighting for leadership in many cases. I think they’re fighting not to be leader because we knocked out two levels of leaders,” he said.
Trump added, “When they want they can call me. We have all the cards, we’ve won everything.”
Referring to ongoing negotiations, he said, “They gave us a paper that should’ve been better. And, interestingly, immediately when I cancelled it [envoy trip to Pakistan], within 10 minutes we got a new paper that was much better.”
“We talked about they will not have a nuclear weapon, very simple … They offered a lot, but not enough,” he added.
When asked whether he would continue the ceasefire, Trump replied, “I haven’t even thought about it.”
The remarks come as uncertainty remains over the future of the temporary truce and broader negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
