Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra at Lok Sabha said the word 'pappu' can be now used to describe the Modi government because it has failed in every metric of economics. She went on to quote official statistics and said the state of the Indian economy must indicate who the real pappu is.
The West Bengal MP said: "The government uses the word 'Pappu' to denigrate extreme incompetence. Then, now tell who the real Pappu is."
Moitra pointed out economic indicators to back her remark and said industrial output shrunk by 4% in October which is the lowest in the last 26 months. She also said that the manufacturing sector is contracting by 5.6% and the industrial sector is recording negative growth, reported The Wire.
She also spoke of the alleged misuse of the central agencies by the BJP-led union government and questioned the low conviction rate in comparison to aggressive raids and investigations being carried out by the Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation, and others.
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman responded to the jibe and said Moitra should look in her "own backyard" to search for "pappu." She delivered a lengthy response to the TMC MP's criticisms and blamed the West Bengal government's boycott of Central government schemes.
"There is no doubt that where there are wonderful schemes to benefit common people, West Bengal sits over it, doesn't distribute it. You don't have to search anywhere else for Pappu. But even worse is this one. "Maachis kiske haath mein hai". I don't want to elaborate too much on this. Because she probably wanted to spice up her questions. In a democracy, people elect the leader. Don't undermine the people by saying who's given them the power," said Sitharaman.
The finance minister spoke of the recent election victory in Gujarat and set it as an example.
"The BJP had a fantastic victory in Gujarat, and see how peacefully the new government took over. Compare it to Bengal's state elections. The question is how the maachis were used there and by whom? When the maachis were in our hands, we gave Ujjwala, Ujala, PM Kisan Yojana, Swach Bharat Abhiyan. In your hands, the maachis led to looting and rapes of our (BJP) workers," she added.