On the 7th of November 2017, former Prime Minister speaks on the hasty decisions taken by the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Dr. Manmohan Singh claimed that the note ban exercise and Goods and Services Tax (GST) were “badly designed and hastily implemented.” He reminds his listeners the words he spoke in the Rajya Sabha that the “demonetization was organized loot and legalized plunder.”
Speaking to small group of businessmen in Gujarat, one year after the note ban was implemented, Dr. Singh said that demonetization and the shoddy implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) had pushed millions of Indians into terrible hardship, thereby undoing the work of his United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which he said had pulled 140 million Indians out of poverty.
The only ones to benefit from the badly implemented GST was China as the exports had surged this year.
Industries in Surat, Vapi, Morbi and other parts of Gujarat were badly hit by demonetization and GST. They had broken the back of small businesses in States like Gujarat. Along with demonetization, GST had created a deep-rooted feeling of tax terrorism among businessmen in the country, he said. He said that even a one percent drop in the GDP caused by the two major initiatives (demonetization and GST) would be an immense loss for the economy.
Lashing out at Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Dr. Singh claimed that the demonetization has not brought any benefits to the country. The current Finance Minister and Minister of Corporate Affairs in the BJP Government had defended demonetization and GST- the two reforms brought by Narendra Modi.
The former prime minister also questioned PM Modi if he had thought about the impact on those in the informal sector, “whose earnings have dried up because of shortage of cash”.
Modi’s pet project too was not spared by Dr. Singh who claimed it as “an exercise in vanity”. He asked if the Prime Minister considered an alternative of the high speed train by upgrading broad gauge railway. Dr. Dr. Singh also accused the Gujarat government of selling forest lands to industries instead of allowing tribals to farm.
Dr. Singh also took a veiled dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi by comparing with India’s first deputy Prime Minister Sardar Patel.
“Bravado and drama are poor substitutes for courage and conviction to execute well,” Dr. Singh added.
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