Arun Jaitley responds to Rahul attack, says time to shed disruptive politics

Jaitley sought cooperation of the opposition and said that Centre's approach will have to be to work together

With key bills stuck in Parliament, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today reached out to opposition asking them to shed "disruptive" politics and sought their cooperation while countering Rahul Gandhi's attack over issues related to JNU, intolerance, inflation and foreign policy.

Responding to attack on JNU row, he said the government has nothing against a "particular student", an apparent reference to student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, but asserted that free speech cannot be allowed to be used to advocate break-up of the country.

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"I expect mainstream political parties like Congress to be in the forefront of being against these people. Please don't do anything that lends respectability to such people," he said.

He also talked about the present NPA crisis in banks, saying it was "not a big crisis but certainly a challenge" and questioned why the previous government did not take steps to avert the situation.

Intervening in the debate on Motion of Thanks to President's Address in Rajya Sabha, Jaitley rejected Rahul Gandhi's charge that the government has "given away" the benefits of previous years on Pakistan, saying "We are compelling Pakistan for first time to own up that attack in India is taking place from their land."

To hit back, he attacked previous UPA government by raking up the 'Sharm el-Sheikh' episode, saying "you agreed to hold talks with Pakistan irrespective of whether terrorism stops or not."

In his 45-minute speech, Jaitley said, "This is the time when we don't need obstructive democracy. Our approach will have to be to work together. This is the spirit with which this government needs to function."

Reacting to charges made by Rahul Gandhi on various issues, including the government not passing the benefit of reduction in crude oil prices to consumers, Jaitley took a dig at the Congress Vice President, saying the "most dangerous calculation is the one done at the back of an envelope".

He told the Congress benches in the Upper House, of which Rahul is not a member, that "somebody has convinced your leader (Rahul) to do all accounting on the back of an envelope". Rahul is a member of Lok Sabha.

Defending the decision of not passing the entire benefit of reducing oil prices to consumers, the Finance Minister said while a major part has been passed on to consumers, some has been given to loss-making oil companies and part invested in infrastructure-creation especially in rural areas.

Pointing to the shrinking world economy due to the crisis, the Finance Minister said, "This is the period when we need cooperation of all political groups. We are in the midst of a situation where we are fighting a global economic slowdown. The global economy is shrinking. The new norm now is volatility and uncertainty. We need to create firewalls to protect our economy."

Answering to opposition's criticism on a range of issues, he claimed that there is an overall improvement in security, price rise, foreign policy during this government and debunked the attack on the issue of intolerance.

"You talk about intolerance. During Delhi polls, a news about attacks on religious places of a particular community was played up and an image was created the world over that it was political atrocity.

"Was it a political conspiracy? When police investigated, they were found to be cases of theft or simple vandalism under the effect of liquor. But you used it during Delhi elections.

"In West Bengal a nun was assaulted and a Bangladeshi was arrested for it. This happened in a state (not ruled by BJP), but you gave it a political colour.

"Today the debate on intolerance is who will be the chairman of an institution. I have read history and remember that when a singer did not sing in a Youth Congress programme, he was debarred from AIR," he said.

Jaitley also talked about the Ishrat Jahan case in an veiled manner to target Congress, accusing it of "unbaring" the national security apparatus as it wanted to "fix" a political leader (Narendra Modi).

Asserting that it was not simply a case of changing the affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan case, he said the UPA government changed the composition of SIT on a couple of occasions.

"In the process, you unbared the entire security apparatus of India because you wanted to fix a political leader," he said, adding that "some day an investigation will take place on how internal security was played with".