A file photo of Shiv Sena leader Milind Deora.
| Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI

Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha member Milind Deora has claimed that the Congress, which once ushered in economic reforms, currently has a divisive economic agenda which seeks to derail India’s economic growth trajectory.

In an interview to PTI, Mr. Deora said the Congress was a centrist party but it “veered very, very Left” and talks about policies that have failed around the world when the party should be talking about policies which can fuel innovation and investment.

The economic reforms of 1991, the Congress’ policies of the previous 60 or 70 years, facilitated the creation of businessmen and wealth creators, he noted.

Now the Congress party is trying to “name call them, abuse them, criticise them”, the former Union Minister claimed. “It is a symptom of the fact that the Congress is moving away from its own legacy,” he said.

“The Congress had an economic agenda to take India forward. Today, I find the Congress has an economic agenda which is divisive, that seeks to derail India’s economic growth trajectory, which when India is faced with a really interesting and exciting tailwind where much of the world wants to diverse from China and invest in India,” he said.

“We should be taking advantage of that,” he said.

Mr. Deora, a Lok Sabha member from South Mumbai from 2004-2014, and served as a Union minister in the Manmohan Singh government. He quit the grand old party in January this year and joined the Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

He said many people in the Congress, including former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, will not subscribe to the party’s current economic view.

‘Congress implemented 1991 reforms’

It is the Congress which implemented the economic reforms in 1991 under the leadership of the then PM P.V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh, he said. “But the Congress moved away, shied away from those reforms,” the Shiv Sena MP said.

Milind Deora and his father — former Union minister late Murli Doera — share a unique distinction as both served as the Mumbai Congress president.

The Shiv Sena MP also hit out at the Congress for opposing the abrogation of Article 370 (which provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir) and said the nation’s founding fathers, who were also members of the Congress, had introduced it as a temporary provision.

Article 370 was a temporary provision in the Constitution, but the Congress “veered away” from it, he said. The Congress fought against caste politics, but today the party is advocating it, Mr. Deora said, alluding to the opposition party’s assurance of a caste census if it comes to power.