I am not frustrated': Yashwant Sinha sticks to his guns, finds support from Shatrughan

A defiant Yashwant Sinha on Thursday stuck to his stand on his criticism of the government, saying he had to go public with his views on the state of economy because the doors of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP were shut for him.

Sinha also felt that if his son and Union Minister Jayant Sinha was asked to write an article rebutting his views as published in a newspaper, then it was a "cheap trick" of pitting a son against the father.

If Jayant was competent to answer the questions raised by him, why was he removed from the Finance Ministry, the senior Sinha asked.

Talking to TV channels a day after his stinging critique of the government's management of the economy created a storm, the veteran BJP leader said the previous Congress-led UPA regime could no longer be held responsible for the mess Indian economy was in today.

He had a word of advice to the government: If people like former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram speak on the economy, the government should listen to them.

Civil Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha, without naming his father, claimed on Thursday in an article in the Times of India that his father had missed the fundamental structural reforms initiated by Modi that were transforming the economy.

Modi re-tweeted Jayant Sinha's published article.

The government also rubbished Yashwant Sinha's criticism, citing that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and UN bodies were hailing India as one of the fastest growing economies.

Stepping up his attack against the government, Yashwant Sinha, who was Finance Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and is still in the BJP, reiterated that the Finance Ministry failed to address the problem of reviving stalled

projects and sort out issue of non-performing assets (NPAs) of banks.

He again said that demonetisation and the GST that followed were massive disruptors of the economy, which had been growing slowly in the last six quarters.

He said the fall in growth in the latest quarter made him speak up in national interest.

"I am not frustrated. I deliberately chose this. I will speak on national issues. I cannot be kept silent on national issues."

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