Arun Shourie was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee's NDA government (File)
Renowned journalist and former Union Minister Arun Shourie on Sunday alleged that "falsehood" was the "hallmark" of the Narendra Modi government and it has failed to fulfill several promises such as on generating jobs.
He also urged the people of the country to minutely judge the work of the government.
Participating at the Times Lit Fest in New Delhi, Mr Shourie, who was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee's NDA government, said that he can give many examples of that in the form of full page advertisements in the newspapers showing "government statistics of generating over five and half crore job by MUDRA scheme" only.
"But we should not be surprised at this.... falsehood has become the hallmark of this government," he said.
Mr Shourie also stressed that we should not examine what a person or leader has been doing for a long time but examine their work "minutely".
Citing Mahatma Gandhi, he said: "Very important point that Gandhiji use to make 'don't go by what he has been doing but go by his character' and 'what can you learn about his character?'.
"And we have missed that twice both in the case of (former Prime Minister) V.P. Singh and Narendra Modi. They just say whatever is convenient at the moment," he said.
He also urged the people to not go by the thing by what Modi is saying now, but go by what he has been saying all along.
Slamming the government over the short winter session of Parliament, Mr Shourie said: "Today we are surprised by the centralisation of the power but that is the Gujarat model.
"We have been surprised as the cabinet has reduced to a nullity but that is the Gujarat model... we are surprised by the fact that the Parliament has been reduced to the status of the state assembly but that was the Gujarat model... and all the agencies and institutions are being the instruments of a coterie but that is the Gujarat model."
He also slammed the government over issues like intolerance, violence and even the debate over ideological differences.