Anand Sharma dubs BJP 'vision document' rudderless

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma today dubbed the Bharatiya Janata Party's "vision document", which was released yesterday, rudderless and accused the saffron party of "exploiting" the sentiments of the people.
Sharma also questioned the resources being spent on the Gujarat and the Himachal elections by the BJP and said the people have the right to know about the sources of funding.
"The vision document is silent on job creation...No reference has been made to appointment of the Lokayukta, isolated Gudia rape-and-murder case has been blown out of proportion and references made on various issues are vague and lack direction," the deputy leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said while addressing the media here.

The former Union minister accused the the BJP of deriving electoral mileage by "exploiting" the sentiments of the people of the state by politicising the Gudia case, where a minor was found raped and murdered at Kotkhai in July.
"No doubt, the infamous Gudia rape case was a heinous crime and should be condemned by all, but the isolated case should not be made the sole criteria for judging the law-and- order situation in the state," the chief Congress spokesperson said.
The former minister said the heinous crime rate in BJP- ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan was higher.

Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "ruining" the economy by "reckless" decisions such as demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), Sharma said that he was ready to discuss the fallout of these decisions with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on any platform.

"It is unfortunate that the prime minister is neither ready to accept the mistake (demonetisation) nor come out with an explanation, but was resorting to lies to mislead the people," he said, highlighting the more than 150 circulars, issued by the Reserve Bank of India and the Union finance ministry after the noteban, as an evidence of the "futile" exercise.

Blaming the Centre for making a "mockery" of the GST, Sharma stressed that it was not 'one nation, one tax', but "one nation, six tax, and thirty states, thirty tax".
"The GST has hit the economy hard as there is a 4-crore job loss in the unorganised sector, hit workers and small businessmen and traders and resulted in price rise," he added.