Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that the country’s progress has declined under Modi’s regime. India’s economic condition has clearly deteriorated, he said. Raut claimed that India has become a sick and crippled economy.
In his weekly column ‘Rokthok’ in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, Mr. Raut said that even moral values have gone down during the Modi regime. “India’s economic condition has clearly deteriorated. Modi had spoken about making India the world’s third largest economy of five trillion, but the World Bank proved Mr Modi a liar,” the Rajya Sabha MP said.
Claiming that scams and frauds have increased in the country, the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader said that Mr. Modi and Amit Shah have failed to stop the devaluation of the Indian rupee. “The rupee fell to 86 against a US dollar. When two BJP MPs fell down after being pushed by leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in the Parliament premises, Modi, Shah and BJP made a lot of noise. But the Indian rupee fell to the ground, who pushed it? The biggest devaluation of that fallen rupee happened in the year 2024,” he said.
Slamming the increase in GST on popcorn, the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader said, “To strengthen the rupee, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman imposed a GST tax on the purchase and sale of popcorn, Chhole (chickpeas), Kuramure and old cars. This tax is even more terrible than the ‘Jizya’ tax imposed by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.”
Mr. Raut, who is also a Rajya Sabha member, claimed that the World Bank revealed new information that “India has become poorer today than it was in 1990”. The per capita income of a poor country should be Rs 576. In India, the per capita income is only Rs 181 or less, he said.
The Shiv Sena leader said that 2024 will be remembered for a long time as the year that weakened democracy and freedom. “Although Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his aide Amit Shah retained power at the Centre, and Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra, this gave importance to lies. The slogan of ‘Satyameva Jayate’ has completely ended. The year 2024 also witnessed removal of the spinal cord of constitutional institutions like the Supreme Court of India, Election Commission of India, Governor and Lokpal,” he said.
