Pune: “A challenge to Prime Minister Modi will be thrown up by Indians themselves by electing a face as their prime minister from the opposition parties. Modi’s strong competitors are the people of this country and not any party in next Lok Sabha polls,” said ex-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha on Wednesday.
He was delivering the annual JS Karandikar memorial lecture on the topic ‘Current political scenario and the media’ organised by Pune Union of Working Journalists (PUWJ) in the city. Sinha said, “The BJP has become a dead men’s (murdon ki) party like the Congress. No one has guts to challenge Modi and party chief Amit Shah.” When asked by a member of the audience whether the BJP would mend its ways after its defeat in the five states, Sinha replied, “People have rejected the BJP. However, I don’t think the party would learn any lesson.”
“The party is being run at the whims and fancies of only two persons (Narendra Modi and Amit Shah). They are not bothered about the poll outcome,” Sinha said.
“The party’s communal agenda has failed in the Hindi heartland. Voters have expressed their dislike for the state and central governments through these polls. If the BJP is defeated in the Lok Sabha elections, Modi will be the opposition party leader and Shah will continue to be the party president,” he added.
Replying to a query, Sinha said the BJP will not project Nitin Gadkari as its prime ministerial candidate in the next Lok Sabha polls. He said, “Everyone is under pressure in the party. No one wants to speak out against Modi and Shah. No one can stand up against them.”
When his attention was drawn to his observation that even the Congress doesn’t have a good track record and hence people are forced to choose a lesser evil from among Mayawati, Mulayam Singh, etc, he said.
“I would like to tell you that in 2012 and 2013, no one could anticipate that Narendra Modi would become the prime minister. However, he became the PM. He was the chief minister of Gujarat. Now, there are many leaders in the opposition parties, who are chief ministers and former union cabinet ministers. People will replace Modi with one of them.”
He said, “In 2014, we wanted to make the parliamentary elections a presidential one. We projected Modi as the future ‘presidential’ candidate. There was no opponent to Modi. The then prime minister Manmohan Singh was not interested. Rahul Gandhi was still untested. Now, there are options and anyone from the opposition could become the next prime minister.”
‘New RBI governor may give in’
Cautioning against the danger in the appointment of former economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das as the new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, Yashwant Sinha said, “The decision to appoint Das has been taken in a hurry. It indicates that it was already decided. He had helped to implement the prime minister’s demonetisation move in 2016. My fear is that he might just hand over the RBI reserve money to the government. If it happens, it will spell doom for the country. Right now, India’s financial position is in a very bad state.”
