Fear factor haunting business community, says Arvind Kejriwal

Says they're constantly under the threat of being harassed and persecuted by the police

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal finally spelt out his party's economic policies on Monday. Addressing a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) summit here, Kejriwal sought to dispel the notion that AAP was against business.

"We are not against capitalism, but we are against crony capitalism. We are depressed when spectrum worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore is sold for Rs 6,000 crore within one week. This is not called business, it is called dacoity," Kejriwal noted. He said the government had no role in running business, which is the domain of private players. The government should only focus on governance, he added.

According to Kejriwal, there is a 'fear factor', which is haunting the business community. "They're constantly under the threat of being harassed and persecuted by the police. We need to create an environment which encourages businessmen, not discourage them. While I was the Delhi chief minister, businessmen had issues regarding value-added tax and we sorted out those issues immediately."

AAP, which had been facing flak for not announcing its economic policy, clarified that its economic stance would be based on three things - security to citizens, justice and honest corruption-free governance. "We have possibly the best economist leading the country today. The best of economic policies simply remained on paper. They never got implemented. There was no honesty," said Kejriwal.

"We are against licence and inspector raj , which are affecting the business community. The government should privatise sectors with more competition immediately and improve governance," he added. Kejriwal also batted for de-regulation of agricultural prices in the country. "In agricultural sector, pricing is important, control on farmers should be lifted, we should deregulate agricultural sector."

Responding to questions by industrialists on the decision to audit power companies in Delhi, he said an audit does not mean that corruption happened. "One has to notice that, out of the two companies (being audited), only one has a problem."  On the controversies surrounding the first information report (FIR) filed against Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily for complicity in gas pricing, he said: "Why should we get gas at market price? From our wells, we should get it at basic cost, plus some profits."

The former Delhi CM claimed that according to independent studies, corruption has come down by 20-30 per cent. "What we have done in 49 days, what others couldn't do in years. Medicines are now available at government hospitals. Corruption came down by 20-30 per cent. And they say we don't know about governance?"

He also claimed his government in Delhi has done the maximum amount of work during its short sting.

"We have done lot of work in last one-and-a-half month. The amount of work we have done, I am challenging, let me know if any other elected government has done as much as we have done since independence."

On cleaning up of politics, Kejriwal said while the Congress got reported contributions of Rs 2,300 crore, the Bharatiya Janata Party figures stand at Rs 800 crore. "More than 90 per cent of the contributions for them are below Rs 20,000, which is unaccounted for. It is being introduced as benami black money."