Those creating confusion about National Monetisation Pipeline against India's progress: Karnataka minister

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], August 25 : Launching a veiled attack on Congress, Karnataka Higher Education Minister Dr CN Ashwathnarayan on Wednesday said those who are trying to create confusion about the National Monetisation Pipeline are against India's progress.
"Those who are against India's progress are the ones who are trying to create the confusion about National Monetisation Pipeline. The people who have looted the country for more than 60 years are trying to distract the public with their banal thoughts," tweeted Dr Ashwathnarayan.
The BJP leader emphasised that the National Monetisation Pipeline is designed to gain by leveraging the existing pool of underutilised resources.
"The National Monetisation Policy aims to leverage the existing pool of underutilised resources and gain from it. It means, putting your money into debt instruments/government bonds where returns are assured with no risk, instead of keeping them in your safe and depreciating its value," he said.
"India has a government headed by the Prime Minister who acts not as a politician, but as Pradhan Sevak. He cares for the welfare of the common man and believes in the dharma of - Sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas!" added the Karnataka minister.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused the BJP-led Central government of "putting India on sale".
"The very first thing they sold was respect and now #IndiaOnSale," tweeted the Congress leader.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Wayanad MP termed the Centre's National Monetisation Pipeline as a "huge tragedy" saying that the government had mishandled the economy and the move was aimed at creating monopolies in certain sectors.
Addressing a press conference, he said, "What this country has built over the last 70 years, is being given away. There is an excuse they have come up with that we are leasing these. The government clearly mishandled the economy and doesn't know what to do."
"The BJP and PM Modi say nothing happened in the last 70 years. But yesterday, the finance minister decided to sell the assets that have been built over the last 70 years. They (the government) have basically destroyed what the UPA built and now as a last resort, they are selling everything that we had helped create. To me, this is a huge tragedy," he said.
The development came after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday launched the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) that includes the Centre's four-year plan to monetise its brownfield infrastructure assets.
The government has planned a Rs 6 lakh crore pipeline of assets that can be monetised which includes a range of assets put on the block for private sector participation, over a four-year period, from Financial Year 2022 to Financial Year 2025.