We are not following right economic policies: Subramanian Swamy
Mumbai, Sep 28: The country is not following the right economic policies, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said here on Saturday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ushered in some good programs such as Make in India, but what is lacking is macroeconomic policies, the former Union minister said.
Speaking at an event here, Swamy accused the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru of `imposing' the Soviet economic model on India which he said held back the economy.
"Today, if we follow the right economic policies -- I am sorry to say, we are not," he said.
Modi was working hard on schemes and programs such as Make in India, Ujjwala and the campaign to stop open defecation, the BJP leader noted.
"But they are all micro-economic measures. What the country needs is macro-economic policies and that we have not yet done. We will do it because we are facing some problem now, so serious thinking has begun," he added.
Swami criticised former Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan for increasing interest rates to control inflation. It led to unemployment and harmed the small and medium industries, he claimed.
Government should ensure that bank loan interest rates do not exceed nine per cent, while fixed deposits and saving accounts should earn nine per cent interest, Swamy said.
"If you do that, investment will start booming and our growth rate will go up," he said.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) was not desirable for the country at its present stage of development, he said.
Income tax should be abolished so as to raise savings, Swamy said.
"During Nehru's time, we thought we cannot grow beyond 3.5 per cent. Today, we think India can grow at 10 per cent a year. We have the ability, the resources, capacity," he 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.
