Date:10/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/10/stories/2008081060511000.htm

New Delhi

‘BJP, Congress should have common minimum plan’

NEW DELHI: At a time when economic reforms are in a limbo, a key UPA leader has said that problems facing the nation would increase if the Congress and BJP fail to draw up a common minimum plan in the matter.

“The Congress and BJP are the dominant political parties in the country. It has become essential for them... to draw some common minimum plan with regard to economic reforms. Disregarding this need would only increase the problems that the nation is already facing,” Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has said.

Mr. Pawar’s comments have come in an interview, which appears in “Fast Forward,” a compilation of his speeches and interview, edited by noted journalist Aroon Tikekar.

Dabhol project

Mr. Pawar noted that the BJP opposed the Dabhol Power Company but later accepted foreign direct investment in the telecom sector, reaching a limit of 74 per cent.

“When our Government presented the relevant Bill in Parliament, the BJP did not oppose it,” he said. — PTI