Finance Minister dismisses allegations against NDA government at Pondy Lit Fest

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday dismissed cronyism charges against the NDA government as “calls out of frustration” from nay-sayers unable to find any case of pecuniary or moral corruption in governance.

Delivering the key-note address at the seventh edition of the Pondy Lit Fest 2024 on the theme “Bharat in the New Age”, inspired by Sri Aurobindo’s envisioning of “Bharat Shakti” at the Sri Aurobindo Society auditorium, Ms. Sitharaman said what India has achieved in the last few years, particularly in the last ten years, has been possible only because the government has been “absolutely beyond corruption”.

“There has been no pecuniary advantage, no policy distortions, no subjectivity anywhere,” she said.

She added that any number of calls or allegations of favouritism are all “calls coming out of frustration” because critics are unable to pinpoint any case of pecuniary or moral corruption.

Whether in providing housing, drinking water, medical insurance, LPG connections to poor households, the bottom-line of governing efficiency is the impact on fundamental ground realities, from malnutrition, number of schools with quality teachers or measuring learning outcomes. “It is a question of how governance is taken down to the last point”, she said.

As she acknowledged that there remained larger issues, such as an estimated 80-crore below-poverty line population that needed long-term and sustained interventions, Ms. Sitharaman also drew attention to a few global funding organisations which, she said, were continuously disturbing global peace as seen in the revolutions in Yugoslavia, Ukraine or Armenia.

“Prosperity unites whereas poverty divides. Where there is continuous poverty, or sections that are vulnerable, unsavoury forces will find an anchor to breed on varying degrees of discontent”, she said.

According to her, India has benefited from a continuity and stability in policy and governance with Mr. Modi re-elected for the third successive term at a time when at least 50 countries had faced elections, change of regime and a reset of priorities.

India is on the right track to attain the goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047, according to Ms. Sitharaman. “The priorities are to make India safe, its fundamentals remain strong and be clear-eyed about the destination,” she said.

Investments in asset building, innnovation, infrastructure and inclusivity would be among the dimensions she would closely monitor, the Finance Minister said.

Holding that an assessment of a country’s development today was not going to be devoid of defence capability, Ms. Sitharaman pointed out that in the emerging world order, even traditionally non-aligned countries are seeking friends, building alliances and stepping up Defence spending to enhance security.

“We have always prioritised national security and never compromised on spending on Defence, from the bulletproof vests to the soldier to larger vectors for the forces”, the Finance Minister said.

She stressed the imperative of gaining self-sufficiency, addressing vulnerability factors and managing threats from external actors.

In an oblique reference to the recent social media buzz over a viral clip purportedly showing a Coimbatore-based hotelier “apologising” to her shortly after sharing his GST woes at an interface with industry recently, Ms. Sitharaman remarked that it is advisable for Anand Ranganathan, scientist and political commentator to stay away from her for a week for suggesting in jest that those who had not paid their Income Tax to exit the hall.

“Well, if Anand could start on something like “if you have not paid your taxes filed, get out of the room”, in the same vein I will tell him not to see for the next few days. Because it can be projected as “how dare you Anand, come and apologise to me”...that would be the projection that I had called him to apologise”.

Alo Pal, PLF Director also spoke. Earlier, organisers sprang a surprise on Ms. Sitharaman when they arranged for the welcome floral bouquet to be presented by Sabitha, her teacher at Holy Cross School, Tiruchi.

Published - September 22, 2024 11:45 pm IST