Grand alliance a 'Rent a Cause' campaign with manufacturing issue: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday hit out at the grand alliance stating that it is 'Rent a Cause' campaign which has no leader, no gathbandhan, no common minimum programme, and no real issue."There is no leader, no gathbandhan, no common minimum programme and no real issue. Not surprisingly, there are not many takers for a "failed campaign". It is 'Rent a Cause' Campaign," Jaitley said in a blog post.

He added that the Opposition wasted the past two years dealing with "manufacturing issues" which did not exist.

"To oust a popular Government, an extremely popular Prime Minister, you need some real issues, not fictional issues. The Opposition wasted the past two years in a run-up to the polls 'manufacturing issues' which didn't exist. The false campaign on Rafale didn't carry much weight. Loan waiver to industrialists was a lie, the EVM as an instrument of rigging was a bigger lie. Now that they are in the midst of the campaign for over a month what is the issue which they are able to focus on?" he asked. Criticising the Opposition for bringing a new cause every day against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, Jaitley said: "One day Pulwama was questioned as self-engineered. The next day Balakot was questioned as a non-existent operation."

The Union Minister was referring to the February 14 Pulwama suicide bombing in which 40 CRPF jawans had been killed. The attack was followed by an air strike carried out by the Indian Air Force on terror launch pads at Balakot.

Shedding light on the recent anti-satellite missile test, Jaitley said, "The anti-satellite missile was passed off as a Nehruvian contribution even though Panditji's correspondence with Dr Homi Bhabha established to the contrary. One day BJP is accused of whipping up war hysteria, the other day it is dubbed as pro-Pakistan."

Speaking about the recent questions being raised by the opposition regarding Union textile minister Smriti Irani's educational qualifications, Jaitley said: "One day the focus would be on the BJP candidate's educational qualification, fully forgetting that a public audit of Rahul Gandhi's academic credentials may leave a lot to be answered. After all, he got an M.Phil without a Masters degree!"Continuing his tirade against the Mahagathbandhan, Jaitley said the Opposition is in a "disarray" in many states as alliances have not worked out. Talking about the verbal battles between the Left, Trinamool, Congress, and AAP, the Union Minister said: "The BSP leader Mayawati and the Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee leave no stone unturned in running down the Congress president (Rahul Gandhi)."

"The false campaign on Rafale didn't carry much weight. Loan waiver to industrialists was a lie, the EVM as an instrument of rigging was a bigger lie. Now that they are in the midst of the campaign for over a month what is the issue which they are able to focus on?" he said.

Jaitley also targeted grand alliance for conducting a signature campaign against the BJP, "One important tactic is being to get some critics of the government in different sections to sign memorandums against the BJP. Even in the 2014 campaign, such desperate memorandums were signed.