Click to play videoNew Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday followed up on the UPA's report card and seemed to play his own devil’s advocate.
Coming down heavily on India Inc, Manmohan Singh said benefits of economic policies have not trickled down to the common man and gave corporate India a lesson on unbridled greed and the limits of decency.
“An area of great concern is the level of ostentatious expenditure on weddings and other family events. Such vulgarity insults the poverty of the less privileged, it is socially wasteful and it plants seeds of resentment in the minds of the have-nots," he said.
With Lok Sabha elections due in two years, Manmohan Singh’s statement is being seen as a political about turn.
Many believe it was landmark speech - with social inclusiveness being the byword – and could have been written by the Left or even by his bitterest critics in the party, Mani Shankar Aiyar.
That the economist who once pushed the country to a nine per cent growth path is now asking corporates to go slow, “be human” and work for the “aam aadmi” is being seen as a reversal of Manmohanomics.
Many also said the speech sounded like the times in the 1960s and 70s when conspicuous consumption was discouraged.
“Cartels are a crime and go against the grain of an open economy. Even profit maximisation should be within bounds of decency and greed,” he said.
It was much obvious from PM’s words that disastrous recent election results are beginning to take their toll.
After defeats in Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and the various civic polls, the Congress wants to reach out to the deprived voter.
Besides, for the survival of the alliance it needs the Left and also needs to silence the socialists within the Government.
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