Former BJP member Arun Shourie has come down hard against the triumvirate of Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley and lambasted the party for its recent drubbing in the Bihar elections. Here are four of his most prominent quotes from an interview to NDTV Khabar:
1. When asked about who should be held responsible for the defeat, Arun Shourie said, “It is Modi, the master strategist (Shah) and Jaitley. There is no fourth person in the party or the government.”
2. Shourie hinted at a quiet rebellion within the party. "The silent non-cooperation movement against them (Modi, Shah, Jaitley) will deepen. In the government, bureaucracy will also not be forthcoming."
3. He also referred to Modi's claim during Lok Sabha polls campaign that everybody would get Rs 15 lakh with the amount of black money he would bring to India if he were voted to power. And then its party president said it was a 'jumla', so people will obviously not take you seriously when you make new promises, he added.
“The PM says that I will bring investment worth this many crores. 15 Lakhs each will go into everyone’s account. When Amit Shah is asked, then he says “That was a ‘jumla’ for the election. You’re saying that the prime minister’s credibility is zero? So when this time the Prime Minister goes and says I am giving a package of Rs. 1 Lakh 25 Thousand, people say “Perhaps this is a Jumla too? These are old schemes around which a new ribbon has been put.”
4. Questioning whether Modi was aware of what’s happening, he said: “Is he (MODI) receiving proper feedback or not? Because everyone in Gujarat used to say that he would gather information on his own. So how is it that a lot of things are happening in the world and the PM does not know?”
Arun Shourie has been highly critical of the party of late and had recently kicked up a storm with his remark that BJP was nothing more than Congress plus a cow. Shourie, who is a Ramon Magsaysay award winner, is currently Chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata.