Congress hits back at Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Hitting back Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for accusing it of being obstructionist in Parliament, Congress today said it exposes BJP's "hypocricy and double standards" as the party had frequently "derailed" legislative business while it was in Opposition.

Terming Jaitley's charge as "misleading and unwarranted", Deputy Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Congress leader Anand Sharma said that the credit for Parliament's functioning and passage of bills during the current winter session goes to Congress as it respects the institution as a "responsible" Opposition.

"The statement of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley accusing the Congress party of being obstructionist in Parliament is misleading and unwarranted. Finance Minister wants to be reminded that it was BJP which as Opposition party resorted to frequent disruptions in Parliament," Sharma said.

He accused the BJP of opposing the Economic Reforms and opening of FDI in many sectors, including Civil Aviation, Insurance and Multi-Brand Retail.

"Arun Jaitley was the leader of Opposition when BJP derailed the legislative business in Parliament in furtherance of its partisan agenda. No business was transacted in many sessions.

"It is ironic that the Finance Minister has now conveniently forgotten BJP's role and the accusation against Congress speaks of BJP's hypocrisy and double standards," he said.

Accusing Congress of following an obstructionist approach, Jaitley had yesterday said the government was committed to going ahead with reforms measures to take India back to original potential of 8 per cent economic growth.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government are busy promoting crony capitalism and have to yet address the structural issues of the economy," Sharma said.

Terming Jaitley's claims of turning economy around and ensuring more capital inflows as "exaggerated and fallacious", Sharma said that the BJP government "inherited" a healthy economy with both fiscal and current account deficit under control.