Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Atul Anjan here today alleged that the government is not able to stop black marketing and hoarding because these black marketers and hoarders supported Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during elections and also financed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election campaigns.
“The government can’t control black marketing and hoarding because these black marketers and hoarders supported BJP during elections and financed Modi’s election campaigns. if Jaitley says that its state government’s responsibility to control black marketing and hoarding then this means that he is not taking the inflation issue seriously and such policies of the government will increase inflation. The government has given full freedom to these people. Until it controls them the inflation will not reduce,” said Anjan.
Reacting over Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s comment of mindless populism, another CPI leader D Raja said that Jaitley needs to explain as to what he means by ‘mindless populism’.
“I do not know what he means by mindless populism. If he has anything concrete in his mind he will have to tell the nation but mindless populism needs to be explained whether or not he is in a position to explain. Subsidizing to the poor and tiling masses, is it mindless populism because in a country like India where there is high level of unemployment you cannot afford to slash down the entire subsidy on food items, fertilizers, public services provided to the ordinary people. If the government thinks that all these subsidies need to be slashed down and that is what he means by mindless populism, I do not agree with him,” said Jaitley.
“This present government has spoken about hoarding and black marketing but unless they don’t act against hoarding, black marketing and ensure the availability of food grains and food items to the common people at affordable price, the inflation will not come under control,” he added.
Ahead of the first annual budget due on July 10, Jaitley had said on Tuesday that high fiscal deficit and inflation are major challenges and ‘mindless populism’ in policy making needs to be checked.
……..ANI