Rupee trade pacts priority, many in final stages: Amit Shah

Gandhinagar | New Delhi: India is in the "final stages" of negotiations with many countries to work out the modalities of settling trade in Indian rupees, Union home minister Amit Shah told ET in an exclusive interview, adding that this will be a major priority of the new government.

"Matters have been put on hold due to elections but let me tell you we are in the final stages in our negotiations with many countries. This will be a priority for us in days to come," he said in a detailed interview on board his flight back to Delhi from his constituency Gandhinagar, which went to the polls on Tuesday.

On US President Joe Biden's remark that countries such as India, China, Russia and Japan were losing out on economic growth because of xenophobia, Shah said he had not seen Biden's comments in detail but pointed to India's growth trajectory over the past decade as evidence of its rising economic profile.


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"I haven't seen President Biden's statement. However, in the past 10 years, we have become the fifth largest economy of the world and a road map is ready for us to become the world's third largest economy over the next two-three years." Shah said. "Now that our exports are increasing, we are being considered as a potential hub for international manufacturing. Our economy is being ranked high by others year after year. Therefore, I don't think it's right for anyone to assume there's no economic growth here."

The home minister also alleged that opposition states were misusing central disaster relief funds to distribute freebies and playing politics by appealing before the courts.

"This economy of distributing freebies by Rahul baba and company has led to these problems. As a standard practice, 90% of the funds is allocated to every state on a pro rata basis. But the problem is that states use these funds to distribute freebies or meet other state expenditure and when the actual crisis comes, they want more funds," he told ET.

On states such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal complaining about blockage of disaster relief funds by the Centre, Shah said, "The states filed as many as four applications, and each time they revised the estimate. Now, every application must be verified by the home department. So, by the time the final decision was to be taken, the Model Code of Conduct was in force. Therefore, the home ministry had to seek permission from the Election Commission for release of funds. Meanwhile, the states went to the Supreme Court and resorted to politics."