Govt selling what India built over 75 years: Rahul on Monetisation

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday came down heavily upon the Central government over its infrastructure monetisation plan, saying that the ruling dispensation is in the process of selling "India's crown jewels built by previous govternments with public money over 70 years". He said the move was aimed to help "2-3 private players" and also countered the BJP's favoured allegation that there had been no development in India under the Congress.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Gandhi alleged that the Narendra Modi government wants to benefit its few industrialist friends through the National Monetisation Pipeline. "We are not against privatisation but our privatisation plan had a logic. We didn't privatise strategic industries and we consider Railways as strategic industry because it transports lakhs and crores of people and also employs lots of people," Gandhi said.

Referring to the monetisation plan itself, senior Congress leader and former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said there had been no criteria or goals for such a big exercise. "Have they consulted stakeholders, the unions, etc? All this was hatched in NITI Ayog. Can this be the sole goal, to get money through rent? To get 1.5 lakh crore?" he asked.