Click to play videoThe UPA government will lose the support of the aam admi if it didn’t correct its course at the mid-point of its five-year term, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Minister for Panchayati Raj, Sports and the North East, has warned.
"Alarm bells should be rung, they absolutely should be rung whether they're ringing or not," Aiyar told Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN’s programme Devil’s Advocate.
Aiyar fears "there is a disproportionate benefit of the 9.2 per cent (growth) going to the classes" and if course correction is not undertaken the Congress-led UPA Government could lose the support of the aam admi.
"I fear that a government that is attempting to have an economic policy for the aam admi may not get the aam admi's endorsement."
Aiyar was questioned about a speech he made in April to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) where he said: "the masses determine who will form the Government (but) the classes determine what that Government will do".
Asked if this meant that Government policies were not always in the best or complete interest of the majority of the people of India, Aiyar replied: "Sometimes. I have no doubt about it at all." Asked if he was also suggesting that the Government's policies were unduly influenced by elite interests as represented by institutions like the CII, he said: "Yes and I was also suggesting that if we are aware of this then we can always take countervailing action ... industry interests need not necessarily be the country's interest".
Excerpts from the interview:
Karan Thapar: Are you also suggesting that the aam admi, despite the rhetoric, is not always at the centre of the Government's policies?
Mani Shankar Aiyar: He ought to be. And the whole point of what I was trying to say was that we ought to constantly remind ourselves of the Common Minimum Programme's commitment to the aam admi. And if there were a conflict between the interest of the growth rate and the interest of the aam admi we must take both into account before we take a decision.
My point was to underline that there can be a conflict between the demands of growth and the demands of equity. Not always but this is quite often so. If we are framing an economic policy for a democratic polity, as we have to, then we must resist the tendency to look at the interest of the classes and instead take into account the interest of the masses. (Otherwise) the priorities could get misplaced is my point. Actually we ought to be all the time conscious of the demands of the masses.
Aiyar said the much-vaunted 9.2 per cent growth rate conferred "a disproportionate benefit to the classes" and a conscious effort had to be made to direct benefits to the masses.
"There's a disproportionate benefit of the 9.2 per cent going to the classes. What I want to emphasize is not that there's no benefit going to the masses but that it needs to be much more consciously directed there."
Asked what would be if the Government doesn’t take remedial action, Aiyar went on to claim that "alarm bells should be rung" and added "in Cabinet and out of Cabinet I have been stressing the need for us to constantly keep this course correction in mind".
He claimed that his views had received "a very sympathetic response" from the Prime Minister who "absolutely" understands that the time for course correction has come.
Karan Thapar: What is it that you fear might happen if correct remedial action is not taken?
Mani Shankar Aiyar: I fear that a Government that is attempting to have an economic policy for the aam admi may not get the aam admi's endorsement. It's our job to understand this at the midpoint, because that's where we are, and to take course correction. And it's the job of any responsible Cabinet Minister to not only take into account what the (Government's) achievements are but also what further needs to be done.
Karan Thapar: You're saying something very important. If at midpoint you don't take course correction you could end up losing the support of the aam admi?
Mani Shankar Aiyar: Absolutely.
Karan Thapar: So the Government is coming close to losing the support of the aam admi in whose name it actually exists?
Mani Shankar Aiyar: We have got another two years, and there is time enough to take certain special measures.
Karan Thapar: But alarm bells are ringing?
Mani Shankar Aiyar: They should be rung. They absolutely should be rung, whether they're ringing or not.
Karan Thapar: So the CII speech was an alarm bell you were ringing?
Mani Shankar Aiyar: The CII speech was to the CII. To my fellow Congressmen, in Cabinet and out of Cabinet, I have been stressing the need for us to constantly keep this course correction in mind.
Karan Thapar: When you make these points to the Prime Minister, as undoubtedly you must have done, what response did you get?
Mani Shankar Aiyar: I got a very sympathetic response.
Karan Thapar: So he understands the time for course correction has come?
Mani Shankar Aiyar: Oh, absolutely!
Karan Thapar: So you are saying to me that the Prime Minister accepts that the time for alarm bell ringing has come?
Mani Shankar Aiyar: I think all of us who are responsible hear alarm bells if the rate of growth leads disproportionately to benefit the richer classes. And we must take various types of action to directly benefit the masses.
However Aiyar said that by expressing in public his differences with Government policies and priorities he was not worried that the Prime Minister might ask for his resignation. In fact, he claimed, he has received "numerous" and "flattering" support from party colleagues:
"Since the last one month that has lapsed since the CII speech no one has asked for my resignation. I have received numerous very flattering references to that speech from my own Party colleagues. There is not one Minister who has come to me (to say) that I should not have said it except for Priyo (Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi)."
In fact, Aiyar claimed that he had a right to speak up in the way he had. "I am the author of the economic introspection report. I am the author of very large number of Congress resolutions on this subject. I have been in the heart of the discussion and debate in my Party on this issue. (And) I'm in the Left wing of my Party."
Aiyar asserted that his call for course correction to avoid losing the support of the aam admi "has a resonance in Cabinet", although he accepted that he would not be able to influence Cabinet policies as much as he would like to.
Mani Shankar Aiyar: What I'm saying has a resonance in the Cabinet. It has a resonance with every single Minister with whom I've talked about this matter. Nobody has reprimanded me. Nobody has suggested that I'm out of line. No one. Literally, no one.
Karan Thapar: Will you end up having the affect on Cabinet polices that you want or will you be whistling in the wind?
Mani Shankar Aiyar: I will certainly not be whistling in the wind but I will probably not have as much of an impact as I'd like to.
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