New Delhi, Jan 17 (IANS): Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday hit out at the opposition parties specially the Congress and the Left saying a new class of "compulsive contrarians" has emerged in the political system who "manufacture" falsehoods to attack the Narendra Modi government.
In a Facebook post, the senior BJP leader said that the right to campaign for stifling funds to the economy in the name of autonomy, justifying corruption in the name of institutional independence, attacking judges when the verdict is not favourable, manufacturing facts as in the case of Judge Loya's death and the Rafale deal are indicative of the mindset of these compulsive contrarians.
"There are some in the political system who thought that they were born to rule. There are those who had managed to penetrate into positions of influence irrespective of the government in power.
"Some who were part of the ideological left and the ultra-left obviously found the new government wholly unacceptable. Hence emerged a new class of Compulsive Contrarians," he said.
The Minister said that the people who oppose or reject popular opinion believe that this government could do no good and every act of it must be opposed.
"They picked holes in the proposal to give 10 per cent reservation in education and public jobs to the poor. Steps taken against black money were described as 'tax terrorism'. The virtues of cash which was a source of black money and fuelled corruption were discovered after demonetisation.
"Aadhaar which became an instrument for saving money to ensure that it is fruitfully spent for the poor was questioned on the ground of violating personal liberty.
"Slogans which championed the breaking-up of this country into pieces was defended as free speech. The successful surgical strikes conducted by the Army were questioned either as a routine or as a dubious process" he said.
"These Compulsive Contrarians had no qualms about manufacturing falsehood," he added.
"They could concoct arguments even if they went against the general interest of the country. They could masquerade corruption as crusade. They could adopt double standards whenever it suited them," he said giving examples of the controversies created by the Opposition in the Justice Loya case, the Rafale deal, the CBI and the RBI issues.
Slamming the opposition parties, he said free speech and the right to dissent are critical components of a democracy but falsehood, subversion and institutional destruction are not.
The Minister said that nations are built by those with positive mindsets and a national vigour, not by the compulsive contrarians.
"Didn't left-liberals find fault with the various actions that (Mahatma) Gandhiji took during the freedom movement? Weakening a sovereign elected government and strengthening the unelectable is only a subversion of democracy," he said.