Modi Govt is ‘Congress Plus a Cow’: Arun Shourie

Shourie says people have now started recalling the days of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

In a sharp attack on the Narendra Modi government, BJP leader Arun Shourie late on Monday said the Centre seems to believe that managing economy means “managing the headlines”. Shourie said people have now started recalling the days of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

People have started recalling the days of Manmohan Singh. The way to characterise policies of the government is – Congress plus a cow. The policies are the same.

Arun Shourie, BJP Leader and Former Union Minister

The function to launch Turn of The Tortoise, a book written by former Business Standard Editor-in-Chief, TN Ninan, was attended by Manmohan Singh, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran.

Pointing out differences between the present and the previous governments, Shourie said “there is clearer belief (in the present dispensation) that managing economy means managing the headlines and this is not really going to work.”

Arun Shourie Takes on Modi Govt

• I feel there was never a weaker PMO than this one. There has never been as great a centralisation of functions, not power, of functions in PMO as now.
• If fellows don’t have the domain expertise, that Brajesh Mishra had, LK Jha had, all these principal secretaries had, then things get stuck.
• Everybody is busy and everybody is doing very hard work, but it is not resulting in big things that was problem at that time(UPA government time).
• If you see impediments that were there in tax administration, virtually no change. Banking reform has been delayed by a year and a half for no reason. Therefore, this tortoise is a very generous metaphor. Ye to so hi jata hai (this tortoise goes to sleep).
• The industrialists who meet the Prime Minister don’t speak the whole truth. After meeting PM, they wonder what is happening and say ‘please do something’. And in front of the media they give the government 9 out of 10.

Shourie noted that Parliament has become alibi for not doing anything.