Modi’ll defeat arithmetic of ‘Nawabs of Negativity’: Jaitley

Mumbai, Jan 17 (IANS) Calling chieftains of rival political parties as "Nawabs of Negativity", Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said the grand alliance of opposition parties has multiple claimants and that NDA's chemistry will succeed over their arithmetic.

"The Nawabs of Negativity may come together but they are not going to hold together and carry much credibility as far as people are concerned," Jaitley said at "India Business Leader Awards 2018" here via video link from New York where he has gone for medical check-up.

Jaitley said the opposition's arithmetic is not based on any ideological similarity, economic programme, common vision to bring the country together or a common leader, instead, it is based on only one premise which is negative in character and that is wanting one man out.

Alleging that the opposition has multiple claimants for the position of Prime Minister, he said India is a highly aspirational, politically conscious society and such societies never opt for a suicidal cause. "They opt for a tried and tested established leadership," he said.

"The kind of individuals who have almost staked their claims ... the claimant from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana and from the privileged family of Delhi. I think if you look at it, the situation looks fairly scary," the Minister said.

He said that on all three counts of leadership, performance and narrative that will decide the fate of next election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) scores much higher. Falsehood can never constitute a permanent narrative against leadership, decisiveness, performance and future potential, he said.

"I have not the least doubt in my mind that in a battle between chemistry and arithmetic, politics is something where chemistry always succeeds. It happened in 2014, it has happened elsewhere in the world and I am quite certain it's going to happen in India, too," Jaitley said.

Further, citing achievements of the last five years, he said the Modi government was instrumental in restoring the decision-making process of Indian economy and was able to change the tag from policy paralysis and "fragile five" to a bright spot in the global economy.

"I think the biggest achievement has been that while we have gone ahead with a large number of difficult economic reforms and maintained a steady rate of growth, we have also been able to use the advantages of those additional revenues we got for the people's welfare."