Arun Jaitley attacks Rahul Gandhi, asks if anti-Modism Congress' only ideology?

As Congress President Rahul Gandhi bolstered his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday wondered whether the Congress is becoming "ideologyless" or "anti-Modism" is its only ideology.

Union Minister Arun Jaitley. File Photo

NEW DELHI: As Congress President Rahul Gandhi bolstered his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday wondered whether the Congress is becoming "ideologyless" or "anti-Modism" is its only ideology. Slamming Gandhi for his statements, Jaitley said he found "no ideological pattern" in the Congress chief's speeches but "ignorance with anti-Modism" was a common thread. On Gandhi's claim that the Modi government had waived loans of Rs 2.5 lakh crore, Jaitley in a Facebook post said: "Why does he believe that 2.5 lakh crores of bank loans have been waived? Is it because of his inability to understand that where Performing Asset is not serviced by the debtor, after ninety days it becomes Non Performing Asset. Its chances of recovery as per RBI guidelines, decline. There is a shift in the column that takes place and the bank has to make provisioning on the basis that the possibility of recovery declines. But the debtor liability remains. There is no waiver." "For a President of a national party not to understand this basic procedure of bank functioning should be a matter of concern to the entire party as also the country, he said. "In dynastic parties political positions are heritable. Unfortunately, wisdom is not heritable. It has to be acquired through learning," Jaitley added. Questioning the Congress' "sudden love" for the OBC community, Jaitley alleged the grand old party was always anti-OBC and the community had deserted it in the early 1990s. "Rajiv Gandhi made strong speech in Parliament against the Mandal Commission. Recently, the Congress Party opposed the grant of constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes. They voted against the constitutional amendment in Parliament," he said. "It opportunistically supported reservation for the non-backwards. It impliedly wants to reduce the quota for the OBCs knowing fully well that the judiciary will not allow 50 percent on reservations to be waived and the new claimants would eat into the OBC quota," he added. "You can oppose the OBC when it suits you. You can shed crocodile tears for them when the opportunism so requires. You can run down jobs created by frying pakodas. You can quantify on the virtues of running a dhaba." "The leader’s ill-informed instincts become the ideology. This can only happen to a party which becomes ideologyless; pushes itself to the fringe; is willing to act as a tailender to regional parties. All this because its only obsession is a person called Narendra Modi," he said.