Adani issue a company problem, not an attack on India, says finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman

Coming to the issue of volatility in the market. Many people have said this and the Adani Group has also stated that this is an attack on India. Do you believe that this is an attack on India? Are there any powers that want to compromise India’s economy? The government must have taken some view on this? Maybe it is an issue of further investigations but is there a prima facie feeling that there could be some anti-India forces?
I want to just convey that as regards investments, as regards fund flow into India, as regards trust in our banking system, as regards joint ventures and the PLI and also China plus One related policies that we have, I do not see any impact because of this incident. For example, we have received $8 billion. In the last few days, our forex reserve has gone up by $8 billion.

After January 24?
In the period that you are referring to. So what explains that? Because people do believe in India, people do believe the strength, fundamental strengths of India that monies are coming in. That proves the trust in India, India’s markets, India’s economy, India’s leadership and India’s vision for a future and India’s role in the global economic revival, if there is anything, it is good confidence. That is why people are even now talking about their businesses.

So it’s not an attack on India. This particular occurrence, is not an attack on India?
Nirmala Sitharaman: Otherwise, why would people come investing? So I think the trust in India, trust in India’s leadership, trust in India’s role for having kept an economy carefully nurtured during the Covid period and as a result of which, we have reached the stage of being the fastest growing economy are all intact.

Read Also: Budget’s objective was to keep the growth momentum alive

So it is just a company problem?
I would think so.

And what about the charges against the government that this is “a favoured company by the government”?
The moment they uttered thatI did say this, you point a finger at me? Do not forget you have three fingers pointing at you. Which are the governments which have called this party and given land, given ports? Not the BJP governments? How come you suddenly forget that? Would they then please now give back and say no, no, we made a wrong decision?

We have not given anything. Let me be absolutely clear.

Any project under Prime Minister Modi goes through the open tender process, global tendering. It is all put on digital platforms. Every day how many people have applied, what has been the process, how is it being processed, and when is the final bid being opened, all that is there for everybody to see. We do not indulge in favouritism of any kind. And therefore for those very people, rigorous media like you should ask them this question. But are not there instances, specific instances, I am not talking about hawa baji, every state which has given land, every state which has given ports on invitation in this case cannot afford to throw an allegation at us, which is anyway baseless. Again in Hindi, kis muh se? Audacious.

Yes. Kerala, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Bengal, Jharkhand.
And people shaking hands and all that. Recent pictures. So how hypocritical can you be in saying no, no, it is this government. Can you sleep at night? I wish the Indian public called this fraud out.

Do you feel that in our country, making wealth, encouraging entrepreneurship, creating wealth has now become a bad word because politics requires vote banks and rich wealth are not words in that dictionary?
In fact, I do not think it is now. And the struggle nowadays by many people who see India has been left by the wayside because of the first 50-60 years of treating wealth creators as though they are plunderers, as though they are sucking other people out.

Of people are doing legitimate business and earning money and also giving jobs and creating wealth for themselves and for the country, in the first 50-60 years you have only heard them being mocked in every avenue, like the way you have said.

It is only after 1991 that entrepreneurs have had opportunities coming by the way. And then the hurdles got cleared and 2014 onwards PM Modi openly said no, wealth creation is not wrong, making profit is not wrong, as long as you abide by the country’s rules and regulations and this country has been known for entrepreneurship and that is why you have a million MSMEs who are all working to take care of themselves, their family and also creating jobs and wealth.

They are exporting some of the fantastic things in this country. So this is again coming back through the back door to accuse wealth creators. That was then. 1991 onwards it started easing out. 2014 onwards we have openly said we want entrepreneurs to come into this country, no red tape, all red carpet. That is coming back now with a false narrative saying these are the people who are doing this and that but you are shaking hands with them, you are sitting and having dinners with them, you are giving prime properties to them.

So that hypocrisy which governed this country in the first 50 years in the name of socialism is coming back and that is not good for this country and it shall not succeed. I am sure the people of India have now come far away from it but this attempt is a very foolhardy attempt.

Mr Rahul Gandhi says your Budget “Mitra Kaal ka budget hai.” There is no vision to create jobs, no plan to tackle mehngai (inflation), no intent to stem inequality. 1% richest own 40% of the wealth, 50% poorest pay 64% of GST, 42% youth are unemployed. Mr. Chidambaram, a former finance minister also says the word inflation and unemployment were not even mentioned in the Budget. How would you respond to their criticism?
That is exactly what I want to come back to. These figures, they churn out and also keep mapping the words in the Budget. You can always list out the speech and say how many times this word occurred, that word occurred as if only those wordcounts mattered in the Budget. I can understand why Garibi was there as long as Congress was there. They said 50 times-100 times in a Budget about garibi mitaenge, mitaenge, mitaenge but till 2013-2014, what was the situation? Why was India fragile? Why did India’s per capita income not go up? Why did they come up earlier under Mrs Indira Gandhi 20-point programme for poverty alleviation?

If only your wordcounts in the Budget speech mattered, by now India should be a very prosperous country. Congress went on saying all this in every one of their speeches. Wordcounts alone do not lead to any kind of poverty alleviation. If that is the job which anybody is doing there in the Congress, they are wasting your time. Go to the number of villages and do a word count there of the number of people who have received homes, toilets, water, gas, pakka roads reaching their villages, wellness centres and Ayushman Bharat card. Count them and tell me.

On the one hand they will accuse you, this government does not have any data. Where does these data come from then? Do they run an agency collecting data other than running the party? It is just a lot of lazy opposition job which I am very sad about. They have eminent people who have been ministers earlier. If only that party can sit and strategise on how an effective Opposition can function, it will be a lot good for them.

On the one hand the Opposition says it is an opportunistic Budget which means you have given a lot of things because it is election year, on the other they say you have not done anything for the common man. They say that reducing the tax at the highest level from 42.7% to 39% is also a reward that you are giving the rich in this country. The income tax relaxations are not going to amount to much as Mr Chidambaram says because you have made the new tax regime as the default regime. So what is the opportunistic charge that is being made at you?I do not see any basis for it. They have just thrown in the allegation at us but without looking into the details. And even if they find the details they will never speak about it because they are building a narrative which has no basis.

Haven’t the entire middle class been asking for tax rebates? I keep answering them, sorry wait; have not I given you affordable houses? Have not I given LRS for your children to go? Have not the government provided you with a subsidy when you are taking loans for certain purposes and so on I keep telling, are these not for the middle class? I have said that several times in the last several years. I would say the middle class is a very wide spectrum of people.

In fact one of the arguments which I gave them was have I ever raised the tax against you in any of the slabs? No, I have not. During Covid, there was this whole speculation in the media that I might impose Covid tax. No, we did not do any of that. The Prime Minister was very clear; no, we shall not raise tax now. We have never done that.

Since 2014, I do not think this government has ever increased a tax which hurt the middle class. But even then after COvid, after the inflation, after the disruptions in supply chains and after their businesses were all suffering they kept saying no, please do understand we need some concessions, we need something left in our hand; therefore, we have come with this. If I had not come with this, a huge section which has been quietly bearing with a lot of difficulty and for whom none of these schemes benefit, would have been left unattended.

Is it wrong to attend to them and to say that this has been done just before an election? Was it done in 2018 before the 2019 election? No. It is the need of the hour. The opposition instead of saying good that you did it, because at least this section had been attended to, says no it is done because of the election.

So are we in an era where there is absolutely no meeting ground? Prior to 2014, the Opposition and the treasury benches used to meet together. There were all party meetings. These days it looks to be a very bitter relationship between the two sides. Even some things that are good for the country do not seem to find a common response from the treasury and the Opposition. Are those days of cooperation and working together absolutely over?
I hope not. Yes, business advisory councils meet even now. All party meetings happen even now and senior leaders like Rajnath Singh engage with opposition as well. Home Minister engages with the opposition as well. Pralhad Joshi, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, also engages with the opposition parties. They do attend the meetings but out they go and say different things. These are realities we are living with.

The Opposition says that the government is running away from the whole Adani issue. There are many questions of the opposition, the Parliament is in session, and there should be a discussion somewhere in the parliament and a statement from the government.
I do not want to undermine the Opposition’s rule and I am not also dismissing what they say, but I want you to please hear me on this. The government is running away? Every parliament session, who is the one who is stopping discussions from happening? And when discussions happen, I am sorry to recall one of those real very hurtful moments on parliamentary history, people stood on the benches where the Secretary General sits and threw the rule books on the chair. Who did all that? Discussion you want, you have discussion. You cannot disrupt and completely bring the house to a standstill! But also go out and say the government does not want to discuss.

I want a much more credible explanation to say the government is running away. Where? The session is going on. The session is going on. During the session, the people who are not staying in the House, people who are shouting, holding placards in the Gandhi statue, and the people who are going out and giving false statements, who are they? Come and discuss inside. I am not just saying this in the context of this issue, before this please take out the record. Who are the first ones to create a problem to discuss every very serious issue, opposition? So it is not beneficial to give a stock line to the people who are running away from discussion.

So are you ready?
I am taking the example of the previous session. On China, on the border, on Ladakh, discuss. We have given so many statements on this that the defence minister will come and give the statement of Jai Shankar. I normally do not get up to speak on other subjects because any particular minister can fully address it. But that day I had to get up to speak; I remember Shri Kiren Rijiju, who is now the law minister, telling me that Pranab Mukherjee ji, I know he is not alive but still I am referring to him with due respect, during UPA time, had told him not to raise the issue of China in the Arunachal border. He called him to his room and said please do not raise it. He abided by it. The next time, a different instance, when he started raising again, again he had called him and said please do not raise it, we will address it, we will tell you all the things about it, saying it is sensitive.

But when our government says do not discuss Ladakh, do not discuss that, we will inform you, they said no, no, the government is not allowing an important discussion and gave such fundamentally wrong data; these many square kilometres have been occupied by the Chinese, Where do they get all this information from? But he would not speak in the parliament. He would not allow the discussion in the House on other things, but on this they will go on saying that the government did not have a discussion. So, one thing inside and one thing outside.

The issue is that on this issue, when the Parliament will sit again on Monday, is the government ready for discussion on the Adani issue or ready for any statement because in this, other the demand of Opposition and politics on one side, in this the concern of common man also?
In every issue, the common man is concerned. And in every issue, the government with full responsibility handles every parliamentary issue. It is not that in this, the common man is involved. In national security, the common man is not involved. In inflation, the common man is not involved, Why? Doesn’t inflation attack the common man? And when we are answering him, no one sits, they walk out. I was ready to answer, I was standing and answering, there was nothing, nobody from the Congress. All of them walked out. Inflation is not for the common man?

But when they talk outside, it is all about how expensive it is. That’s total hypocrisy, I feel very, very let down. India needs a good responsible opposition. They say they are establishing pyar ke dukan but they use such abusive terms against the Prime Minister. They abuse everybody and keep the company of people who speak such language. Come on, I want a serious opposition who stands up.

Do you think Rahul Gandhi is not serious at all about this?
Congress Party is. I don’t want to take individual names. The Congress Party probably believes that they can do everything outside, but when it comes inside the parliament, they will not be there to hear the answers. They do not want to be convinced. Be it Covid, be it inflation, whenever we try to speak in Parliament, Congress goes away. What does that mean? Who is spreading hate through language? Look at the language they have used for the PM. Last time also, in 2014-2019, what words did they use – thief, liar, The Congress strategy as an opposition party is wrong.

But when BJP was in opposition, they used to walk out.
After listening to the reply, say we are not satisfied with the reply and we walked out. That is a different thing from throwing allegations but not listening to our answers.