Shourie attacks industry ambivalence on reforms

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 28. The Disinvestment Minister, Mr. Arun Shourie, today attacked the ``ambivalence'' of the industry towards economic reforms even as he criticised the Congress for seeking to erase its past policies. Domestic industrialists were volubly in favour of deregulation, he noted, as long it was not their own sectors. As for the Congress, he claimed that the party president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, was reading a whole new set of speeches while the former Finance Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, was reticent about the new approach.

Mr. Shourie was responding to the plea by the Bajaj Auto chief, Mr. Rahul Bajaj, for removing political hurdles in the way of reforms at the valedictory session of the India Economic Summit.

A smiling Mr. Shourie told the audience of corporate captains, ``you are so resourceful and influential among the political and bureaucratic class that you can bring opposition (to reforms) in line''. The voices of opposition to reforms were guided by what industry told them. Thus it was for the corporates to carry forward the education of the politicians and civil society.

He even suggested that the industry support States ruled by Congress governments in their drive towards privatisation of public sector units. ``When you help them, every state's task is precipitated,'' he said.

Referring to the Congress' economic policies, he felt that Dr. Manmohan Singh should not be so reticent. The former Finance Minister sat as a ``silent spectator'' in Parliament witnessing things he would not have wanted to happen.

Elaborating on the industry's ambivalent approach, he cited the example of the print media suddenly becoming nationalistic about the opening up of the sector. Similarly, Indian companies sought liberalisation to enter into joint ventures with multinationals but sought government controls when the foreign firms sought to buy out their shares.

He did not leave out the business press either and accused journalists of building up temporary hype and the illusion of great progress while writing about the stock markets and massive market capitalisation of companies. When the Nasdaq fell, there was a sudden loss of confidence in the country's IT sector, he noted.

Urging the industry to stop ``heckling'' the Government, he said it should carry out activities independently and in a cooperative manner. Several Japanese companies had combined to carry out research into super-conductivity, he said adding that Indian corporates, instead of coming together, were ``often just picking each other's pockets and using the government's scissors''.

Making a separate set of suggestions to foreign investors, he referred to the rush to invest in China and warned ``the jury is still out on that (country)''. Maintaining that he had made a study of closed societies, he asked them to review their returns on investments after a decade in China. Even so, he commended the Chinese economic performance and felt India could learn many lessons from that country.

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