'Compulsive contrarians' opposing Modi govt with 'falsehoods': FM Jaitley

Arun Jaitley said that certain elements had used manufactured falsehoods to target the government on issues such as the Justice Loya case, Rafale deal, CBI row and the RBI debate

There are some who believe that the BJP-led NDA government can do no good and that every act of it must be opposed, said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in a Facebook blog post on Thursday aimed at Opposition parties, whom he termed as a new class of "compulsive contrarians". 

"There are some in the political system who thought that they were born to rule. There are those who had managed to penetrate into positions of influence irrespective of the Government in power. Some who were part of the ideological left and the ultra-left obviously found the new Government wholly unacceptable. Hence emerged a new class of Compulsive Contrarians," said Jaitley, adding, "The Contrarians believed that this Government could do no good. Every act of it must be opposed." 

Jaitley said these "contrarians" have criticised everything from the 10 per cent reservation in education and public jobs to the general category poor, the steps taken against black money, demonetisation and Aadhaar to the successful surgical strikes conducted by the Indian Army. Further, Jaitley accused these elements of "manufacturing falsehood". He said, "They could concoct arguments even if they went against the general interest of the country. They could masquerade corruption as crusade. They could adopt double standards whenever it suited them."  

In the blog post, Jaitley took up specific cases -- the Justice Loya case, alleged irregularities in the Rafale combat aircraft deal with France, the row within the CBI and the government's subsequent actions, and the tensions between the government and the Reserve Bank of India -- where he alleged that facts were manufactured against the government, its members or its actions. Read the full post here: