NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “a chaiwala”, has done a better job at managing the economy than his predecessor Manmohan Singh, a noted “economist”, BJP chief Amit Shah has said.
Speaking at a book launch in New Delhi on Monday evening, Shah said Modi and his team have succeeded in keeping fiscal deficit and inflation under control.
“Manmohan Singh left the economy at the ninth position in 10 years. We brought it to the sixth position in five years and in less than six months, by March, it will become the fifth largest… You (Singh) are an economist and we bow before you. We have no issues with the depth of your knowledge and praise it, but a chaiwala did a better job in running the country,” Shah said.
“Anyone who is firm on his decisions and works with vigour is not an autocrat. There have been people who were prime minister for 16 years, 17 years. During the tenure of governments that ran for 30 years, there were only 4-5 decisions that can be termed historic. This government has been there for only five years and I can list 30 decisions which have secured a place in the history — whether surgcial strike, GST or demonestisation.”