UPA govt is arrogant & vindictive: Arun Jaitley

Admits absence of consensus of BJP with govt on many issues

BJP today accused the government of being "introvert, arrogant and vindictive" because of which the opposition found it difficult to arrive at a consensus on various issues including the economy.

Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley charged the government with using "lack of consensus" as an alibi for its failure and instead attacked the UPA leadership for its "failure" to take decisions.

Admitting the absence of consensus on many issues, he said the "breakdown" of relationship between the government and the opposition has taken place "when the government is too introvert through its leadership or when the government or its leadership is too arrogant or when it becomes too vindictive that it prefers NIA or CBI as a substitute for consensus".

"I can tell you that this is one government where all the three virtues are present. In such a situation, it would be a very tough job for any opposition to search for a consensus," Jaitley said delivering a lecture on "Economic consensus" organised by All India Management Association.

"Consensus is very desirable. But consensus or want of consensus can't be an alibi for failure. A failed government will always resort to this argument," he said, adding the onus of bringing a consensus lies with the government.

Without naming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he also hit out at him for not taking decisions and for not being a "real leader".

"Prime Ministers in India are going to be judged not by the number of years that they remained in office. They will be judged by the footprints that they left behind. And if you start treating prime ministership as a mere employment, then probably you are not going to be able to leave those footprints behind," he said.

Going by the leassons learnt from recent history, Jaitley said "the Prime Minister must be the real leader in a democracy and I would personally always prefer if he is a political leader as he would always know the art of taking decisions and will know the art of enforcing decisions. He'll also know the risk factor involved in taking decisions. He must also have the capacity to overrule others.