Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, whose scathing criticism of the government over economy has kicked up a storm, today went a step further and said the BJP can no more blame the Congress for the "mess" since it has been more than three years of the Narendra Modi regime.

"There was a constant downfall in the economy, but I did not speak. We cannot blame the previous government anymore because we got a full opportunity (to fix the economy)," Sinha, who served as Finance Minister during Atal Bihari Vajpayee rule, told news agency ANI.

Sinha said the fact that the Indian economy is in bad shape has been known for a long time. "I am not judging on the basis of one quarter. The economy is falling from the last six quarters," he said. "I hope the government will wake up and the economy will catch the pace," he said.

In his The Indian Express column published on Wednesday, Sinha had targeted "superman" Arun Jaitley for the "mess". "Arun Jaitley was put under tremendous pressure, he was given additional charge of Defence Ministry. After Defence, Jaitley got I&B Ministry too. Finance Ministry is so vast that it needs attention," he said today.

He had also listed demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as the two recent blows to economy. "After the demonetisation shocker, GST was another one. What was the hurry? They could have launched GST in October," he said.

"I was a supporter of GST. The government was in a hurry to implement it from July. Now, GSTN, which is the backbone, is failing," he said, asserting that GST played a "big role" in the decline of the economy.

"Before 2014, I used to be the party spokesperson when it came to economic affairs and we used to call the then UPA situation 'policy paralysis'," the former Finance Minister said.

Sinha also mentioned jobs, or the lack of it, which has now become the Congress's big point of attack on the Narendra Modi government. "Today, the people of the country want employment. But ask anyone and they say there are no jobs," he said.

Sinha also rejected criticism of his allegations being not founded on hard facts. "If you leave out Congress finance ministers, then I am the only person who presented seven budgets," Sinha said, establishing his claim to speak on economic matters.

That claim was challenged by many in the government, including Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Railways Minister Piyush Goel. But Sinha was unfazed, "Rajnath Singh and Piyush Goel seem to know the economy better than me."

"It's always about the long run. I am reminded of a quote by (economist John Maynard) Keynes who once said - "In the long run, we are all dead." We have to work for the present,"" Sinha said.

There is no reason to doubt that Sinha knows that famous Keynes quote was also used last year by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of the Congress in Parliament during the chaotic aftermath of demonetisation.

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