Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday took a jibe at Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Twitter, saying that everyone knows the “reality” of ease of doing business in India but “Dr Jaitley” prefers to delude himself.
“Sabko maaloom hai ‘ease of doing business’ ki haqeeqat; khud ko khush rakhne ke liye ‘Dr Jaitley’ khayal achha hai,” Gandhi wrote on Twitter.
सबको मालूम है “ease of doing business” की हकीकत, लेकिन
ख़ुद को खुश रखने के लिए “Dr Jaitley” ये ख्याल अच्छा है— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) November 1, 2017
Gandhi mocked Jaitley with his ‘wordplay’ on Ghalib’s famous couplet: “Hum ko maloom hai jannat ki haqeeqat lekin; dil ke khush rakhne ko Ghalib ye khayal achcha hai” (We know the reality of Paradise O’ Ghalib; but to keep the heart happy about it, this idea is good).
In his response to Gandhi, Jaitley pointing out the difference between the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA governments.
“The difference between the UPA and NDA — the ease of doing corruption has been replaced by the ease of doing business,” the Finance Minister wrote on Twitter.
The difference between the UPA and NDA-“The ease of doing corruption has been replaced by the ease of doing business”
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) November 1, 2017
Gandhi’s tweet that was re-tweeted more than 4,000 times, attracted nearly 2,500 comments and 9,000 likes within four hours of the post, while Jaitley’s tweet had 720 comments, was liked by 1,700 tweeter users and retweeted 720 times within an hour of his reply to the Congress leader.
Earlier on Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi at a public rally in Jambusar, Gujarat, said “Jaitley ji sits in his office and believes a foreign company talking about ease of doing business in India. He should go talk to small shop owners and ask them what is the “ease of doing business?” and added “The ease of doing business has been ruined by demonetisation and GST.”
India for the first time has moved into the top 100 in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business global rankings from its 130th position last year, riding on sustained government reforms which include making tax paying easier, according to the banks latest report released on Tuesday.
The World Bank Group’s latest report ‘Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs’ recognised India as one of the top 10 improvers in this year’s assessment, though the report does not take into account the big bang reform of Goods and Services Tax (GST) which rolled out on July 1.
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The report captures reforms implemented in 190 countries between the period June 2, 2016 to June 1, 2017.
The report also noted that India has adopted 37 reforms since 2003 with nearly half of these reforms having been implemented in the last four years.
(With agency inputs)