Rahul trashes WB report, says note-ban, GST ruined ease of

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today dismissed a World Bank report on India's improved 'ease of doing business' ranking, saying the country does not require a certificate from a "foreign institution".
On the first day of his three-day campaign tour of south Gujarat, Gandhi stepped up his attack on the Centre and the state's BJP government targeting them over a host of issues, including the GST, caste politics, alleged favouritism shown to corporate entities, and the Vibrant Gujarat summits.
Targeting the Union Finance Minister, a day after the World Bank report came out, he said, "Yesterday Arun Jaitley- ji said some foreign institution has certified that India has considerably improved in the ease of doing business."

The finance minister should meet small and mid-sized businessmen for 5-10 minutes and ask them if the situation has really improved, Gandhi said.
"The entire country will shout and say that ease of doing business is absent, you have destroyed it, your demonetisation and GST have ruined it," Gandhi said.
"The country does not require a certificate from a foreign institution. People of the country know that Arun Jaitley ji and Narendra Modi ji have failed," Gandhi told reporters.

Replying to a question on Jaitley's tweet the UPA's "ease of doing corruption" has been replaced by NDA's "ease of doing business", apparently to hit back at Gandhi, the Congress leader said, "See brother, you know the name of Jay Amit Shah. They will not speak about him."

Jay is BJP chief Amit Shah's son. News portal 'The Wire' recently wrote an article claiming the turnover of a company linked to him grew exponentially after the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014. Jay has filed a criminal defamation case against the portal.
Gandhi, using a famous Mirza Ghalib couplet, said Jaitley was deluding himself.
"Sabko maloom hai 'ease of doing business' ki haqeeqat, lekin khud ko khush rakhne ke liye 'Dr Jaitley' ye khayal achha hai (everybody knows the reality of ease of doing business, but this thought, Dr Jaitley, is good to keep yourself happy)," he tweeted earlier in the day.

According to the World Bank, India's rank on the 'ease of doing business' index has risen from 130 to 100 this year, helped by a slew of reforms in taxation, licensing, investor protection and bankruptcy resolution.
Gandhi, while addressing a series of public meetings, spoke about black money, claiming Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to understand that a major chunk of tainted money was in the form of gold, land or parked in Swiss banks.
"On November 8 last year, Modi ji banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Small traders, shop keepers and farmers, they all deal in cash. They are not thieves. Their cash was not black money. But Modi ji failed to understand that all the cash is not black money and all the black money is not in cash.

"They (BJP) talked a lot about Swiss bank accounts. Now they are in power for the last three years. You tell me, how many Swiss bank account holders are in jail? Give me the name of one person Modi ji has sent to jail," he said.
Demonetisation, Gandhi said, had hit small traders, workers, farmers and small businesses as they deal in cash.
"This decision destroyed our economy. Note ban reduced our GDP by 2 per cent," he said.
He also attacked Modi over the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), reiterating that he calls it "Gabbar Singh Tax" because it snatched away the hard earned money of poor citizens.

Addressing a cheering crowd, the Congress vice president said Gujarat was the only state where no community was happy, and named OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani.
Thakor, who recently joined the Congress, shared the dais with Gandhi.
"Not a single community in Gujarat is happy. Be it Alpesh, Hardik or Jignesh, all sections of the society are angry. The only ones who are not complaining are five or ten influential industrialists... They are the only ones who are supporting Modi ji and the BJP," Gandhi said.
The money spent on giving loan to Tata Motors for Nano plant was enough to waive the loans of state's farmers, he claimed.

"The farmers in Gujarat are crying for help, as they want farm loan waiver. Modi ji (as then Gujarat CM) gave loans of Rs 33,000 crore for Tata Nano. He even gave your land to the company. I want to tell you that the government could have waived all your farm loans with that Rs 33,000 crore," the Congress vice president said.
"Though Modi ji gave that much money to the company, you will hardly see any Nano car on roads. This is Modi ji's Gujarat model, where you do not get anything back despite giving so much money to corporates."

He also attacked Modi over employment generation.
"While China provides employment to 50,000 youth every day, India provides jobs to just 450 people per day under Modi ji's 'Make in India' drive," he said.
Later, hitting back at the Congress vice president, BJP in-charge for Gujarat Bhupender Yadav said speaking truth is not in the nature of Congress leaders.
"While addressing rallies in Himachal Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi gives figures of Gujarat. But he does not give those figures when he speaks here. Instead, he gives figures of China when he visits Gujarat," Yadav told press conference.