Congress Committed To Economic Reforms

The Congress has not changed its commitment to economic reform and to liberalising various sectors of the economy one whit, senior party leaders say.

Party president Sitaram Kesari has made it clear to his colleagues that he is firmly committed to the economic thinking enunciated by former finance minister Manmohan Singh, who remains firmly in charge of the partys economic affairs department.

These leaders insist that the large number of MPs who spoke at a recent meeting of the Congress Party in Parliament executive against allowing foreign investment in sectors of the economy such as aviation, insurance and the media were expressing their own views and not the partys line.

A senior party leader said yesterday that the partys most senior leaders believe that most of those who spoke at the CPP executive against the Tata-SIA project and against allowing Suzuki to increase its stake in Maruti Udyog Ltd were influenced by lobbyists.

Not all those who spoke at the CPP executive were lobbying, though. Some senior party MPs have prepared papers questioning Singhs liberalisation policy. Former Gujarat finance minister Sanat Mehta circulated a paper titled Not by Liberalisation Alone.

The paper says the Congress is wedded to development with social justice - not just market friendly economy but human friendly economy. It goes on to say that liberalisation or privatisation are not a panacea for many ills, as some leaders think.

Many also think that once we achieve seven per cent rate of growth of economy, percolation of benefits will automatically start. In our country, it is not going to be a right approach, Mehta holds. He goes on to argue that the nation needs to concentrate on social development, particularly literacy and health.

Reacting to the paper, a leading proponent of liberalisation in the party countered that Singhs policies were geared to freeing resources for social development but that the lot of the poor could not improve unless they could get the jobs that only economic growth could generate.

We were not talking about trickle down either, he adds and says that such papers are rooted in the thinking that dominated India for 45 years.

This leader held that the reports, which followed the CPP executive meeting, that Manmohan Singh had been stung by the criticism of his line at the CPP executive, which Kesari chaired, were unfounded.

Singh, who could not attend that meeting because of a bereavement, has been in touch with Kesari since and has apparently been completely assured that the party is committed to the policies he formulates.

Those reports had said that Singh had withdrawn himself from party affairs. In fact, he left for Amritsar to campaign for the party yesterday afternoon, within hours of returning to New Delhi from Manila.

Singh is to lead one of the four teams of senior leaders that the party plans to field over the next four days to address public meetings in different districts.

The other teams are to be led by Punjab Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad.