india

Updated: Mar 14, 2019 00:37 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s five-year tenure marks the start of a movement to free India from corruption, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday, and compared this year’s Kumbh Mela with the 2010 Commonwealth Games, held during the second term of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

“The Commonwealth Games are remembered more for corruption than for the number of medals India won,” he wrote in his blog titled, “Is Prime Minister Modi’s First Five Year Tenure a Turning Point on Corruption?”

The Kumbh-2019 is an excellent illustration of how public funds are effectively and honestly used, Jaitley said in his blog, the third in the series, “Agenda -2019”.

Jaitley gave credit to the Modi government for purging the power corridors. “Prior to May, 2014, Delhi was a city flooded with middlemen. They have been rendered jobless. Some have escaped the country. The corridors of North Block and Udyog Bhawan, which were flooded with businessmen and industrialists, are today vacant,” he said.

“As a Finance Minister, not a single person till date has approached me for file pushing. The message is clear -- this Government works. It cannot be pushed,” he said.

Criticising the UPA regime, Jaitley said the environment ministry was “the hub” of all corruption. “Files were stacked on tables and not cleared indefinitely. Files even travelled with some Ministers,” he said.