Letter to BS: Governance, policy-making process require honest feedback

This refers to “Mr Bajaj does BJP a good turn” by A K Bhattacharya (December 4). Rahul Bajaj has inadvertently done a temporary electoral favour to the Bharatiya Janata Party by speaking out. This is mainly because he has not given any constructive suggestion while expressing his fears. One wonders why many other business leaders hardly seem to be offering any inputs to the government, leave aside criticism of its economic policies. The fact remains that mistrust of business houses, complexity of taxation laws and processes, too many compliances and excessive regulatory requirements coupled with heavy penalties for offences that might be only technical in nature have led to a widespread feeling of fear among businessmen. The result is that the purpose of business has gradually shifted from “growth and progress” to “safety and security”. This has naturally affected government’s overall revenue generation.

The process of governance and the formulation of major policies require a collection of honest feedback and inputs from operating agencies and specialists, not just from yes men. Business houses are the main operating agencies for a nation. The challenge for the government is how to separate politics from economics in governance without losing out on public support.

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The Editor, Business Standard

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