Whipping up nationalism has a shelf life: Kamal Nath

BHOPAL: The widespread protests against CAA are proof that Indian voters, especially the youth, will not be taken for a ride any longer, believes

Madhya Pradesh

chief minister Kamal Nath.


In an exclusive interview to TOI on completion of a year of his government, Nath accused the BJP-led Centre of bringing up CAA and NRC to divert the youth’s attention from the economic crisis gripping the country.

“We have an economy in distress. The government, instead of addressing economic crisis, has shifted its priorities to CAA and NRC only to distract the youth. We have a banking system in collapse because of NPAs and collapse of the lending system. It’s not the amount you have lent, but who you have lent it to. Have you lent to MSMEs, have you lent to those who will raise industrial production, who will create jobs? Have you lent to those bridging GST gap in payment? This caused the crisis,” said the former Union commerce minister.

The power and coal sectors went bust because of bad policies and now telecom is going the same way, the chief minister said. On the JMM-Congress win in

Jharkhand

, he said: “There is only a small percentage of voters who are swayed by emotion. Whipping up emotion and

nationalism

has a shelf life. In the end, the voter thinks, what’s happening to me?”

In CAA and NRC, it’s not what is written, but what is not written that we should watch out for, he said. Nath led Congress to a stunning victory in the 2018 assembly polls.

As CM, his toughest challenge is to generate jobs for youth of his state when country’s economy is in crisis, he said.