Arun Jaitley lambasts Nehruvian model, says Narasimha Rao was conservative, 1991 reforms due to bankruptcy

New Delhi: In what would certainly upset the Congress, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the Nehruvian economic policy was the reason behind no development in the country, according to a  report published on Saturday.

In an apparent reference to former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's economic policies, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said, “We were living in a different mindset and were actually impacted by the Nehruivain thought. We thought that there are certain things which only government would do. From 1947-95, for nearly 50 years, we thought giving telephones to the common citizens is the job of the government. And by sticking to this policy all we achieved in the first 50 years was 0.8 percent people using phones.”

“People who praise that era should think as to how 80 percent of the people possessed phones with the introduction of the private sector,” Jaitley added.

The report was published in The Times of India.

The Finance Minister added further that the 1991 economic policy brought by former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao was due to bankruptcy, otherwise he was a conservative.