Darts fly at the govt from across spectrum

India’s governance deficit was lambasted by politicians from across the spectrum, though Lok Sabha member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor tried to defend the government on several counts.

Discussing perspectives on better governance for higher growth at a meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said in the past, the Left parties had supported even minority governments led by the Congress, because that had been the correct thing to do. It was because of pressure from Left parties that programmes like the National Employment Guarantee Scheme became a constitutional entity.

Janata Dal (United)’s N K Singh rebutted Tharoor’s argument that coalition pressure was responsible for the policy stasis in India, saying the government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee had twice as many coalition partners. He said India’s growth story had begun to stutter and as long as there was no policy action on labour, law, mining and a host of other sectors, there would be no investor confidence and crony capitalism would reign.

 

Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ravishankar Prasad put the blame for policy paralysis on the government’s inability to reach out.

Shashi Tharoor defended the government, saying a growth rate of seven per cent in the current global economic climate was good.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy charged the Centre, as well as states, with inconsistency in policies, leading to huge losses that ultimately had to be borne by the people.

Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda said industry was welcome in Jharkhand, as long as it addressed two principles: First, the land belonged to the local people and, second, their concern on pollution must be addressed.