Leadership deficit in India worsening crisis: Tata

Says Modi has proven his leadership, moved Gujarat to a position of prominence

Tata Group Chairman Emiritus Ratan Tata on Wednesday in an interview on CNN-IBN said the “leadership deficit in India was aggravating our economic crisis.”

He said it was time Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s team and the political class got back on track and put national interest over individual agendas.

"There are leaders whom I've respected all through my life for their public life. But something has happened that has diffused this leadership. We don't have leadership that we have been talking about, that is leading from the front," Tata said.

However, he added that his respect for Prime Minister Singh continued to be very high. "My aspirations on what he is able to do is very high. Perhaps the team is not leading in one direction, it was pulling in different direction. States are pulling in one direction, allies are pulling in a different direction and many heads of the portfolios in the government are pulling in different directions."

He said Singh had held the country’s esteem high but in recent times, we have lost that esteem. "We have lost the confidence of the world. We have been slow to recognise that in the government."

Tata also said we have stopped looking at ourselves as one India. "We are Punjabis, Bengalis, Tamils first and Indians second. It’s not the way we should be looking at our country."

He said the vested interests in the governments's policy had either delayed or manipulated that policy often in the private sector.

"So, for one reason or the other, the government has swayed with those forces. If the policies are implemented as written, it would be good for the country.”  

Tata praised Narendra Modi's leadership in Gujarat but refrained from commenting on his bigger role in national politics.

"I think in Gujarat he has proven his leadership and he has moved Gujarat into a position of prominence. I'm not in a position to gauge what he would do in a country."

Tata had praised Modi before when Gujarat provided land for the Tata Nano project when the company had run into land acquisition trouble with West Bengal.