Critical conditioning

The unrelenting criticism to which the government is being subjected over coal block allocations appears to have taken its toll on ministers. At the annual Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA) convention, Minister for Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises Praful Patel was reluctant to speak. As he ironically observed at the start of a brief speech, “I won’t say much because it seems we are the people who know the least. We are told everyday how the government should be run. Yet we have no views.” After briefly touching on the auto component industry, he made the point that governments change but it is always the people who vote regimes to power. Ceaseless bashing, he insisted, only hampers the decision-making process.