Rahul should have asked Rajan about loans given to Nirav Modi, Choksi, Mallya during Congress regime: BJP

By Pragya Kaushika
New Delhi [India], April 30 (ANI): Senior BJP leader Gopal Krishna Agarwal on Thursday termed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's conversation with former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan as "unproductive" and "futile".
Agarwal, BJP spokesperson for economic affairs issues said that Gandhi should have asked pointed questions to Rajan.
"Rahul should have asked Mr Rajan who was RBI Governor when loans were disbursed to Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijaya Mallya during Congress regime and NPAs (non-performing assets) kept mounting," he told ANI.
The BJP leader pointed out that the Narendra Modi government was already seeking the opinion of all stakeholders regarding the economic revival issue. "I think when Rahul Gandhi started this series he should have been more focussed and try to give out solutions. Nothing came out of the dialogue. There were generic questions," he added.
Attacking the Gandhi family scion, he said "Congress is only doing charcha rather than working on ground. This isn't a time to stay home and advise people. Raghuram Rajan too does that. Congress has state governments, they should implement their suggestions in their states. Like Yogi Adityanath did in Uttar Pradesh."
Responding to the figure of Rs 65,000 crore to help poor during Covid 19 lockdown quoted by Rajan, Agarwal said the number is a desk job and that he expected Rajan to speak as an astute economist.
"This Rs 65,000 crore figure is a desk job. There are no statistics nor documents supporting this number. The central government has already announced a package of 8 lakh crore through RBI and also a package of 3 lakh crore for PM Garib Kalyan Yojana, " stated Agarwal.
On Rajan quoting CMIE figure of 10 crore job loss during his conversation with Gandhi, the BJP leader acknowledge that job loss is a cause of concern for economy and government is working on it.
"Nobody can predict the magnitude. Government is working on it. There is global debate on how manufacturing will shift out of China which can come to India, " he added.
Agarwal said that Gandhi should not politicise his interactions with experts and rather come out with solutions. About centralisation of power that Gandhi had asked Rajan, he should know we need strong governments. Centralisation of power to enforce lockdown through police forces is vital to contain the spread and yet if we look at government structure and functioning, we do have a vibrant democracy, " said Agarwal. (ANI)