india

Updated: Mar 11, 2019 16:38 IST

Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said there is clear choice for the electorate to vote Narendra Modi for a second term as Prime Minister and described Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s “lack of understanding of issues” as “frightening”.

“The contest is between a leader in whose hand the country is developing and secure. He is trusted. Against him it is no one projected leader. There are multiple leaders, each trying to outwit the other. They can only promise a temporary Government if we go by the past precedents. One can be certain of chaos. The choice is clear – it is either Modi or chaos,” he wrote in a blog.

Jaitley said that there is no question that Modi will be the Prime Minister in the event of the NDA victory.

“Within the NDA there are no leadership issues. There is absolute clarity. Shri Narendra Modi leads the NDA and will be the Prime Minister in the event of the NDA victory. His leadership is nationally accepted, his ratings are very high. His track record speaks for itself.”

Jaitley dismissed the opposition’s unity efforts calling it a self-destructive ‘coalition of rivals’ with no clarity on leadership.

“What was promised to be ‘Mahagathbandhan’ is turning out to be a ‘gathbandhan’ of several conflicting gathbandhans. It is a self-destructive ‘coalition of rivals’......The leadership issue is an absolute puzzle. The Congress President Shri Rahul Gandhi is a inadequate leader. He is tried, tested and failed. His lack of understanding of issues is frightening. He aspires to be the leader of this chaotic pack.”

Also read: ‘People are more intelligent’: Arun Jaitley on Rahul Gandhi’s Rafale charge

The finance minister cited the army’s surgical strike across the Line of Control in 2016 to destroy terror launch pads and the Indian Air Force’s raid on a Jaish-e-Mohammad camp in Balakot as he hailed PM Modi for his national security doctrine.

“He has evolved India from a nation which only defended itself domestically against terror through intelligence and security network and isolated Pakistan at the global level to a nation which is capable of destroying terror at the points of its’ origin. The success of the surgical strikes of 2016 and the air strikes of 2019 points to this direction,” he wrote.

Jaitley also praised Modi for India’s economic model that he said has boosted infrastructure.

“He ensured an economic model where the advantage of the additionality of resources emerging from the fast growing economy is spent on infrastructure or transferred to the poor, particularly in the rural areas. He did not give slogans but he transferred actual resources to bring down poverty levels and added to the ease of living.”