Deepak Parekh must be made the Planning commission chairman!
Narayanamurthy or Nandan Nilekani must reform the electoral system!
Yes, the Manmohan Singh team is in place. That doesn’t mean that everything with the economy or the polity will go smooth.
Already we see the consonance and the dissonance!
The Presidential address to Parliament was full of the Women’ Bill. But the Prime Minister conveniently left out the topic.
Why?
There is resistance, no, differences in principles and vision, have cropped up among the prominent leaders of the Bihar and UP states. So too, very likely, the BJP might come out with its own analysis and opinion on the bill.
You see the women’s reservation is not a great issue anymore, given the healthy development that the new house has enough number of women MPs, rather very brilliantly representing the parties and the age groups. Wisdom demands that we give this natural progression a chance. There is the youngest 28 year old Ms Sangma giving the new age a great new dimension altogether.
It is the younger and the educated women group that holds good for the shape of the role of women in our society and polity.
This is for the polity. The CBI’s new activism in the NCP and the CPI (M) politicians’ cases smacks of bad timing and also gives rise to mental blocks being built before there is some articulation and crystalisation of the larger trends in politics being studied and absorbed by the major political parties.
Certainly, the timing is not right and the implication is that the government, read Dr.Singh and Sonia, is not as mature as one would have expected. It is advisable they go slow on issues that prick the opponents’ injured feelings and the bad results in the elections.
One hope better wisdom prevails and the duo, Dr.Singh and Sonia, don’t take the election results too seriously and start run around, so to say.
As for the economy, the PM is of course is a bit becoming more confident, his visage in parliament shows him a more confident man and he claims to take his second innings seriously. But to speak in per centages so quickly and that too in dissonent manner, one day he says it is 5-6 per cent growth, the next day he claims he is confident of even though 8-9 per cent growth.
Shall we call for a halt for this sort of academic jargon when people like to see some tangible and easy language of a leader or leaders?
We need a more detailed blueprint for the vital sectors. Industry, core and infrastructure industries, agriculture, education and the social sector.
This is not as easy as it looks.
While the all India voting pattern is for a faster economic growth, stronger India and a secular India, the BJP won in seven states, right?
So too the well-governance states too were voted back to power. Particularly, the success in Karnataka, Orissa and Bihar must be giving lots of thoughts and introspection for the Congress party.
Now, the allies in the new government, DMK and the Trinamul, are not going to lie low and they have already started making noises and it won’t be long before they really become nuisances as well!
So, certain crucial areas like disinvestment and other aam aadmi schemes are likely to be hijacked by other parties, regional parties and BJP ruled states.
Now, as for the economic reforms, we really need a new set of priorities and a new set of performers, implementors.
To have Montek Singh Ahluwalia as the deputy chairman is a bit of a disappointment.
The PM obviously has his own blinkers, if we can say so.
First, the PM wanted Ahluwalia as the FM. This was shot down by the party. The PM swallowed his pride and he yet chose to retain his friend in the planning commission.
Now speaking of the commission, it has now becoming a dumping ground for really useless people!
The previous commission amply demonstrated this dictum.
Now, again, what is the point of retaining tired people in the same jobs?
So, we need to bring some really refreshing new face.
As we write the news comes that the Satyam Computers had been pulled back to health and a healthy profit of Rs.181 crore net for the December 2008 quarter had cheered all the people concerned.
The man behind this fast pull-back is none other than the quiet genius, yes, he is a financial genius and wizard and he had done his assignment given by the government so well and so creditably and brought India a great name for reliability and sustainability and great credibility.
This much, Mr.Parekh said so in his interview on the NTDV Profit not long ago.
“I took up this assignment just to create the confidence in India for the investors abroad. I took up this assignment just to save India, save the IT sector which has emerged as the greatest earner of foreign exchange and as a greatest exporter.”
Further he said:” I and my team toiled hard for three months, I lost 90 days of my life in this endeavour just to demonstrate that Indians can do it and thus we have restored the confidence of the investors abroad”.
“I was in Netherlands recently and there and in Sweden and elsewhere they are keen to invest their pension funds and other funds only in India for them, the outside world believed that the future is in India!”
“India is a young country, they say, India has the largest 30 year age group, and I would say that India has everything for the younger generation and there is so much opportunity here for anyone to prosper”
“There is so much value hidden in the PSU companies, just NTPC, Oil India and the one or two top PSU companies can unlease their value in the market, their market cap is so huge that all the funds we want for financing our plan targets, the 11th Plan, can be found by a wise disinvestment process, without losing control over the same PSUs with 51 per cent of equity in those companies”.
I was inspired and I wanted to stand up and cheer this man, wise and spacious and highly committed to India and so selfless and not seeking any self publicity or other such temptations, temptations for which we ordinary mortals, the politicians and the bureaucrats in Delhi die for!
Yes, I would urge the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi to call this great genius, to head the planning commission and mobilise the funds in such large sums so that the economic reforms take off so smoothly and not talking the mumbo-jumbo of bureaucratise and the academic jargon-ridden numbers and phrases.
Please look for new faces.
Even the Electoral Reforms call for devising new IT tools so that people would be encouraged to vote from the comfort of their homes. The 41 per cent voter turns out in South Mumbai such a disgrace. Don’t blame the hapless voters. Reform the voting system. Call Narayanamurty or Nandan Nilekani to give advice.
Image Source: connect.in.com