India needs a hardcore politician as PM: Jaitely

The leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, said Saturday that India needs a hardcore politician to lead the country.

"India cannot afford a non-politician as PM. The world's largest democracy can't be run by chief executives. They (chief executives) are good to run companies," Jaitley said at the release a book, "ModiNomics", authored by Skoch Group Chairman Sameer Kochhar.

Without naming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Jaitley said the present government was being run by a chief executive who cannot take unpopular and decisive decisions.

Jaitley said that if Manmohan Singh had taken decisive decision on the issue of corruption in the allocation of second generation (2G) spectrum, allocation of coal blocks allocation and the preparations for the Commonwealth Games, then history would have treated him differently.

Referring to Finance Minister P.Chidambram's recent comment that Narendra Modi's knowledge of economics can be written on the back of a postage stamp, Jaitely said that the country needed a good leader who can deliver and not a chief executive with knowledge of economics.

"We have paid very heavily for not having a popular leader as PM," he said.