Jaitley accuses ‘compulsive contrarians’ of subverting democracy

New Delhi, January 17

Terming opposition parties as ‘compulsive contrarians’, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday accused them of manufacturing falsehood and subverting democracy by weakening an elected government.

Nations are built by those with positive mindsets and a national vigour, not by the ‘compulsive contrarians’, he said in a Facebook blog without naming the Congress or other opposition parties.

Jaitley, according to sources, is in the US for a medical check-up.

“The Compulsive Contrarians had no qualms about manufacturing falsehood. They could concoct arguments even if they went against the general interest of the country. They could masquerade corruption as crusade. They could adopt double standards whenever it suited them,” he said in a Facebook post titled ‘The Compulsive Contrarian and his Manufactured Logic’.

Citing the tirade mounted by political parties on a host of issues, including 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections and the Rafale defence deal, Jaitley said the ‘Compulsive Contrarians’ believed that this government could do no good and hence its every act must be opposed.

“Nations are built by those with positive mindsets and a national vigour, not by the Compulsive Contrarians. Didn’t left-liberals find fault with the various actions that Gandhiji took during the freedom movement? Weakening a Sovereign Elected Government and strengthening the unelectable is only a subversion of democracy,” he wrote. PTI