Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday hit back at Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra over her jibe ‘where’s Pappu?’. Sitharaman responded Moitra by saying 'Pappu" can be found in West Bengal and the "maachis" of people's mandate given to Mamata Banerjee's party led to arson and loot in the state post election victory.
Speaking in Lok Sabha, Moitra on Tuesday took a jibe at Centre asking who is ‘Pappu’ now. She cited government data showing industrial contraction to question the Centre's handling of the economy and asked "who is the 'Pappu' now?"
Participating in a debate in Lok Sabha on demands for additional grants for 2022-23, she said, "This government and the ruling party coined the term Pappu. You use it to denigrate and signify extreme incompetence. But the statistics tell us who the actual Pappu is," the MP said.
Nirmala Sitharaman’s intense response.
Smarting under Moitra's attack on Modi government, Sitharaman in Lok Sabha sought to highlight the difference in situation in terms of post election results in Gujarat and West Bengal.
Gujarat was peaceful post BJP's recent assembly election victory but there was "arson, looting, rape and burning of houses of our party workers" after TMC won the West Bengal polls in 2021, the minister said.
"Loktantra mein janata sarkar ke haath mein maachis dethi hain. Isliye, prashan yeh nahi hona chahiye ki haath mein maachis kisne di, asli prashan to yeh hai ki maachis ka upayog kis prakar kiya gaya (In democracy, people give matchsticks in the hands of the government. So the question should not be that who gave the matchsticks but how the matchsticks were used)," Sitharaman said.
While hitting back at Moitra during the reply to the debate on the supplementary demand for grants, Sitharaman also said, "hamare haath main jab maachis thee, humne Ujjawala diya, humne Ujala diya, humne PM Kisan diya, humne Swachh Bharat Abhiyan chalaya (when we got the mandate, we gave free cooking gas, electricity connections, Rs 6,000 annual cash to farmers, and started clean India campaign).
Taking a dig at the TMC, the finance minister said that when that party got the "maachis", there was arsoning, looting, rapes, and burning of houses of BJP workers.
"Jaab apke haath main aaya maachis, arson hua, looting hua, rape hua, hamare karyakarta ka ghar jalaya," she said and also mentioned about the attack on the car of Union Minister V Muraleedharan during his visit to West Bengal in 2021.
'Pappu' is a term that BJP supporters use to describe Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Hitting back, Sitharaman said that all the macro-economic fundamentals are being questioned.
"There is a question who is the Pappu, where is the Pappu. Actually, if only the honourable member looks back into her own backward, she will find Pappu in West Bengal.
"So there is no doubt...when there are wonderful schemes which can benefit common people, West Bengal sits over it and doesn't (implement) them...you don't need to search anywhere else for Pappu," the minister said.
In her reply, Sitharaman also said that funds under rural job guarantee scheme MNREGA could not be released to West Bengal since March 2022 as the state government has not yet replied to complaints of misuse of funds.
She said as per the MNREGA Act, the central government upon receiving the complaints cannot release funds till necessary explanation is received from the concerned state.
According to the minister, India is the fastest growing major economy in the world with inflation within tolerable limits.
