Mumbai: In a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi for his displeasure against the government over the national monetization pipeline plan, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday wondered whether Congress leaders even understood what such a move meant.
The Finance Minister said that it is the Congress, which has got bribes by selling resources like land and mines.
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Reminding that Congress-led governments raised Rs 8,000 crore by monetizing the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, Sitharaman said in 2008 the UPA government had requested for a proposal to lease out the New Delhi railway station.
He also recalled an incident where Gandhi tore an ordinance to which he did not agree and asked why he did not tear up the Request for Motion (RFP).
“If he is really against monetization, why did Rahul Gandhi tear up the RFP on monetization of NDLS? And if it is monetization, did they sell New Delhi Railway Station? Is it now owned by brother-in-law (brother-in-law)? Does he understand what monetization is?” said Sitharaman in a sarcastic tone.
The finance minister reminded the Congress of the Commonwealth Games (CWG), seeking to allay concerns over communalism and the sale of assets created over 70 years.
“What happened during the CWG? Within a Commonwealth Games, they have eliminated all that can be put into the accounts of their teammates,” she said.
Reiterating that asset monetization plan does not involve selling of assets, Sitharaman said the assets will be handed back to the government.
“They are brownfield assets, which have been completed but are under-utilised. If the government is to make better use of it, it has to be done through the monetization process, in which it will be put to effective use with a little more to be added to it,” PTI quoted Sitharaman as saying during a media interaction. Said in the financial capital.
The finance minister’s remarks came a day after Gandhi questioned the National Monetization Pipeline plan and alleged Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “in the process of selling the crown jewels of this country” built by previous governments with public money over 70 years. Had gone.
“Now the Prime Minister is in the process of selling the crown jewels of this country. I am going to read what is being sold and you can guess which monopolist it is being sold to,” he said.
Gandhi said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has claimed that nothing happened in India in 70 years, but now all the properties built in all these years are being sold.
The Congress leader alleged that Prime Minister Modi was working “not for the people of India” but for “two or three monopolies”.
Addressing a press conference with former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in the national capital, he said the Congress party was not against privatization but “there should be a strategy for privatization”.
We are not against privatization, we believe privatization should be a strategy. What were the pillars of our strategy: First, no strategic assets will be sold. There is defence, railways in that,” Gandhi said.
“We said that only those companies that have been making losses for a long time, only those companies that have minimum market share and we will not sell those companies where there is a risk of a monopoly,” he said.
The Congress leader further said that the public sector can help ensure that industry is fair, free and not monopolistic.
“This whole privatization is designed to create a monopoly. The whole idea behind this thing is to create a monopoly for 3-4 people.”
Chidambaram, on his part, said “this exercise is designed without any prior criteria”.
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“The government should have explained what its norms and goals were. You don’t start such a massive exercise without first setting the criteria and what are your goals,” ANI quoted Chidambaram as saying.
Sitharaman had earlier on Monday unveiled an ambitious Rs 6 lakh crore national monetization pipeline that would cover a wide range of sectors from road and railway assets, and airports to power transmission lines and gas pipelines.
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