Modi, Jaitley, Shah brainstorm on economy; major announcements likely

Amid continued opposition attack over economic slowdown, PM Narendra Modi on Thursday held a crucial meeting with BJP chief Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

New Delhi: Amid continued opposition attack over economic slowdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held a crucial meeting with BJP chief Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Though nothing came out of the meeting through official channels, it was speculated that the Prime Minister, along with Jaitley and Shah, reviewed the state of economy in view of a not-so-encouraging report by RBI.

Today's meeting was held a day ahead of Modi’s proposed visit to poll-bound Gujarat on October 7 and 8. Interestingly, a meeting of the GST Council is also scheduled for Thursday. 

There are strong speculations that the government is likely to make some major announcements ahead of Diwali.

Defending his government's economic policies, the Prime Minister had yesterday hinted that he was ready for changes in the newly-implemented Goods and Services Tax laws.

PM Modi said this while responding to Rahul Gandhi's criticism of his government's demonetisation decision and faulty implementation of GST.

The meeting was significant as BJP chief Amit Shah unexpectedly cut short his Kerala event and returned to the national capital to attend this meeting.

Amit Shah was due to take part in today's march, which was scheduled to pass through Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's hometown.

Undoubtedly, Amit Shah's decision to cut short his Kerala schedule came as a major setback to BJP’s ambitious Jan Raksha Yatra, which began in Kannur on Tuesday with a war cry against the CPM.

Neither the BJP’s media cell nor the state unit leaders gave any reason for his absence from padyatra.

The BJP president was expected to attend programmes in Mangalore on Wednesday, which were cancelled too.

While some state leaders said Shah’s programme has been cancelled, others said he might join the public meeting scheduled to take place this evening. 

Sources in the BJP described the curtailing of the trip as “rescheduling” and added that the party president will be present on the last day of the fortnight-long campaign on October 17, where he is scheduled to attend the concluding ceremony in Thiruvananthapuram.

However, some state BJP leaders blamed it on “bad planning”, while some cited Shah’s health as a reason for cutting short the programme .

Shah had walked nine kilometres on Tuesday, from Payyannur to Pilathara, where he also addressed a public rally.

Shah’s decision to skip the padyatra caused a major embarrassment to its Kerala unit and its president Kummanam Rajasekharan who is leading it from Kannur to Thiruvananthapuram covering 11 of the state’s 14 districts. 

The padyatra, with the theme ‘All Have To Live: Against Jihadi-Red Terror’, is part of the campaign of the BJP and its ideological parent RSS to “expose the political violence against their workers in the state by the Communists”.

Significantly, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also participated in the march on Wednesday, where he raised the issues of ‘love jihad’ and terrorism, which, the BJP claimed has been supported by the ruling Pinarayi Vijayan-led CPM government.

Meanwhile, Shah’s march has come under attack from the Communist leaders in the state.