Jaitley: No place for middlemen in Modi regime

As the BJP seeks to build up momentum around Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party strategist Arun Jaitley, who had advocated orienting election around leadership issue, on Wednesday projected Modi as a crusader against corruption.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted the blog of Jaitley saying “no place for middlemen. No tolerance for corruption. No fake beneficiaries swindling away recourses. This is a New India. We have worked hard to remove corruption and punish the corrupt."

In third part of the blog “Agenda 2019”, Jaitley who had projected the strong leadership of Modi citing surgical strike and aerial strikes on terror camp in Pakistan, dwelt on length on anti-corruption measures taken by the Modi government in the last four years and sought to contrast it with the Congress regime.

At a time when the Congress is building up the momentum against the government on Rafale deal, Jaitley said, “from the Bofors gun deal to the HDW Submarine purchases, the Airbus transaction, the Augusta Westland deal, the fertilizer scam, the footprints of the Indian National Congress and its leaders were everywhere.”

He alleged that if the ‘capital creation’ of the Congress party’s first family is subjected to a forensic audit, facts will speak for themselves and advised “those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”

Claiming that Modi’s five year tenure will be regarded as a turning point where a movement to free India from corruption began, Jaitley sought to turn the spotlight on corruption on Congress, painting a doomsday scenario before 2014.

“Prior to May, 2014, Delhi was a city flooded with middlemen… The environment ministry was the hub of all corruption… Besides the municipalities, the taxation department was notorious for harassment and corruption… Rajiv Gandhi had stated that only fifteen percent of the amount released by the Central Government reaches the beneficiaries. Corruption consumes the balance 85%,” Jaitley said in the blog.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a series of tweets tagging key personalities urged for creating voter awareness to strengthen democracy.

“A vote is a great way to make the people's voice heard," the prime minister said roping in personalities from a cross-section of society, including politics, industry, media, films, sports and social work including Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar and Aamir Khan.