Finance Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday accused the Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi of raising “manufactured issues” in their electoral campaign, and said if those “fake” issues were taken out of Gandhi’s speech, nothing will be left.
In a Facebook post, Jaitley said that “falsehood falls apart” and that the “overconfidence” of opposition leaders undermining the electorates’ wisdom would not go unpunished in the Lok Sabha elections.
“Rahul Gandhi has led not only his party but the entire opposition to rely on fake and manufactured issues. They raise fake issues, create an echo effect and then believe their falsehood to be true. It’s time that they come out of the cocoon of falsehood or perish there,” Jaitley said.
“Fake issues raised in Rafale, Balakot, Judge Loya’s death, bank loan waiver, JNU issue, EVM, GST, demonetisation or Nirav Modi and Mallya, or be it the special status for Andhra Pradesh or the issues of economy, every time fakery and manufactured issues of opposition fell apart...If fake issues are taken out of Rahul Gandhi’s speech, nothing will perhaps be left,” the minister said.
Accusing the opposition of underestimating the wisdom of the voters, Jaitley said the electorate would also underestimate India’s opposition parties and show them their place.
“Poll campaigners must know that a campaign of fake issues never works...The real strength of Indian democracy is the inherent wisdom of the voters. They punish non-performers and they vote back those who deliver. Pollsters, political pundits and commentators usually go wrong,” he added.
Jaitley said the Bharatiya Janata Party-National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was led by a leader with whom the comfort level of the voters was high and hence the opposition was in a state of panic with its “negative” single point programme – “remove one man”.
“The level of their ambition is limited. Indian voters have huge potential to distinguish between truth and falsehood and they prefer fairness. Political leaders are over-confident of their wisdom. Little do they realise that the electorate is wiser than them. Voters are capable of punishing those who resort to falsehood,” he said.
Expressing confidence that the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi would get a clear mandate in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Jaitley said unlike many Western democracies, a sizeable section of India’s population was not permanently politically affiliated and their vote preferences varied from election to election.
He said that hung assemblies and parliament are predicted only in opinion polls and since the voter is far more decisive, he endeavours to elect a government with a clear mandate with the front-runner getting more seats than predicted.
In a point-by-point rebuttal of the opposition’s electoral issues, Jaitley rejected its contention that a costlier Rafale was purchased by the present government while giving favours to a domestic industrialist violating procedures.
He said both the Supreme Court and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) cleared the deal, rejecting all contentions of the opposition.
On the criticism that the BJP was politicising the terror attack in Pulwama and the Indian Air Force (IAF) strikes at Balakot in Pakistan, and its demand that evidence of what happened at Balakot should be placed in the public domain, Jaitley said the Indian armed forces consider it “not in the interest of national security and military discipline that the details of military operations should be placed in public domain.” 
On the opposition’s allegations of waiving loans worth Rs2.5 lakh crore of 15 industrialists, he reiterated that “not one rupee of loan has been waived” and in fact, the present government through its new Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code had recovered almost Rs3 lakh crore worth of non-performing assets (NPAs) in the last two years.