Naidu dismisses Arun Shourie’s criticism

Centre on Tuesday dismissed criticism of NDA government’s economic policies by former Union Minister Arun Shourie, saying that it was his personal opinion, which was different from what people think.

Union Urban Development minister M Venkaiah Naidu said people know about the challenges the government has inherited and emphasised that there has been “no scam, no scandal and not even one mistake” under it.

“We are a democracy, he (Shourie) has his opinion, but the country’s opinion is different,” Naidu said adding the people were supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in all parts of the country and BJP is winning one poll after another.

On Monday, in a sharp attack on the Modi government, BJP leader Arun Shourie contended that it believes that managing economy means “managing the headlines” and that people had started recalling the days of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“Doctor Singh (Manmohan Singh) ko log yaad karne lag gaye hain (People have started recalling the days of Manmohan Singh). The way to charaterise policies of the government is -- Congress plus a cow. Policies are the same,” Shourie said at book launch function.

Speaking to reporters at the sidelines of an event organised by Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) ministry, Naidu said government of India is at no fault in any of the incidents which have taken place and some people were unnecessarily try to highlight them and trying to defame the country.

“Some people may have made comments here or there may have made some comments but they have been disowned by the party, disowned by the government,” Naidu said adding that even the Prime Minister had made his views clear on the issues.