Chidambaram wants regular progress reports

Apart from having the house rocking with laughter when he told the Bharatiya Janata Party from the podium of the Congress plenary in his accented Hindi, “Aapka number nahin ayega”, home minister P Chidambaram made two unusual suggestions, while speaking on the economic resolution.

He said the Prime Minister should ask each department of the government to give a quarterly progress report on all the goals the Congress sought to achieve in the next decade on a variety of issues, especially in the social sector. Two, that the report go to party chief Sonia Gandhi every six months.

“If the government has made mistakes, we must admit to them,” he said. He said the government must pass the women’s reservation Bill before 2011 was out and assure food security to all citizens. “Keep your faith in us: we will deliver a government which will give results and high growth with equity,” he said.

He conceded that the past few weeks had been gloomy and said the plenary session had changed the mood. He referred to the ‘sober and farsighted’ speech of the PM, the ‘thoughtful and mature speech’ of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi’s ‘rousing address’ and said the BJP was ‘communal, elitist and unable to deal with corruption in its ranks’.

By contrast, he said, the Congress’ performance stood out. The nation’s highest growth rate under the BJP had been 6.4 per cent annually. The UPA’s lowest had been 6.7 per cent. The average rate of growth during the BJP-led NDA years was 5.8 per cent. During UPA rule, it had been 8.5 per cent.

Chidambaram said with a little hard work, India had the capacity to overtake China and become the fastest growing economy in the world. “Why should we settle for second best?” he asked.

Rural development minister C P Joshi, who seconded the economic resolution, said it was only in the UPA government that a minister for rural development would be asked to speak on an economic resolution.

Former MP and whip, Madhusudan Mistry, said the Congress must strive for good corporate governance and ethical business practices. He emphasized on the return of unaccounted money abroad and sought laws to bring religious bodies engaged in moneylending under the tax net.

Sushila Tiriya, tribal leader from Orissa, condemned the grant of land to Posco and Vedanta in the state. And, said the Orissa government was taxing tribals trading in tendu leaves.

Manjunath Bhandari from Karnataka, a general secretary, regretted he was already 47 but had got no breaks, unlike younger people who were being groomed by Rahul Gandhi. He lamented that his generation had missed the Rahul touch.

The message from those who spoke on the economic resolution was less government, more party.