All above 75 are ‘dead’ in NDA: Yashwant Sinha

Mumbai: In an apparent jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for neglecting party veterans, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said the present regime has declared those above 75 as “brain dead” on assuming office.

“All those who are above the age of 75 were declared brain dead on May 26, 2014,” the octogenarian leader, who himself was sidelined and denied a party ticket at the last hustings, said at an industry meet on Tuesday evening here.

Mr Sinha, finance minister in the Vajpayee government, was answering a question on the difference between the previous Manmohan Singh government and the NDA regime, and what the incumbent government learnt from its predecessors. Mr Sinha, whose son Jayant is a junior finance minister, later jokingly referred to himself also as among those “brain dead”.

Several stalwarts, including BJP leaders L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi are not in the Modi cabinet. This had led to many making potshots. Mr Sinha also took a jibe at the government’s flagship “Make in India” campaign, saying energies should be first focused on making the country a better place and all the other things will fall in place.