Election is never a referendum: Jaitley

Stressing that an election is never a referendum, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that elections are fought on multiple factors.

“It is a cocktail of several issues which goes into the making of an election result…It was not demonetisation per se but a gradual shift in one category of voters,” he said at the event held today. Responding to a question about the impact of demonetisation on the economy and the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, he said the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ability to get votes of the weaker sections has significantly improved, while the impact of the Congress on these sections, which was quite high, even when it lost elections in the past, has weakened.

“What seems to have also happened is that caste-based parties over-emphasised their support on the basis of a single caste,” he said, pointing out that “multiple flowers are needed in a bouquet. You can’t have a single flower.”

Key strengths The Minister further said decision making in 2017 is far easier than in the past as there is a lot more support to a decision. Highlighting this as a key strength of the Indian economy, he said that there is a lot more public support to decisions and reforms. “We have crossed the stage where there was fear that reforms have a political cost,” he said.

Other key strengths of the economy include more pro-activeness by the States in decision-making, welfare schemes and greater investment in infrastructure.

But, the increasing global uncertainty continues to be a challenge, he said, although the increased protectionism by the US economy has worked in India’s favour and has led to more inflows in the last two months.

“American companies have to be more competitive, you can’t compel them to hire costlier services and staff if they have the opportunity of cheaper services and personnel,” he said.