Accusing the faction-ridden Congress of failing to provide leadership to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley has apprehended that the drift which has gripped the politico-economic sphere could prove fatal if not stemmed urgently.Attributing all the ills of the UPA government to internal political struggle within the Congress, bickering among ministers, and a failure to build consensus on crucial issues, Mr. Jaitley said the global impact of all this was that India was no longer considered the best place to do business.
Addressing FICCI's National Executive Committee Meeting on ‘From coalition to issue-based politics,' the BJP leader said the indecisiveness of the government had stalled next generation reforms and development of infrastructure, and the only way it knew how to tackle inflation was by raising interest rates. He said this has also given birth to corruption.
Mr. Jaitley blamed the UPA government for the drift that had dried up international investment and hence had inflicted a setback to India's economic health. This was particularly disturbing because the polity was not affected by any major ideological difference on the economic front.
Calling for an early reversal in the drift, he opined that the government's non-doer posture was also responsible for highlighting corruption as an issue, building consensus on the Goods and Services Tax (GST), and leaving the entire Opposition as a mere spectator to the drafting of the Lokpal Bill.
Mr. Jaitley said the failure of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to act in 2008 had made corruption an issue. “Leadership is not about postponing decisions. It is an art of taking a decision at the right time,” he said.
Shooting down the Prime Minister's argument of the compulsions of coalition politics, Mr. Jaitley countered that the coalition was a reality and the term ‘compulsion' was used by non-doers for their non-performance.
He took a dig at Dr. Singh saying the leader of the government had to be the leader of the core of the coalition (principal party), but here, the core itself had become a coalition, rendering decision-making difficult.
2G scam
Mr. Jaitley solely blamed Dr. Singh for not taking action in the 2G spectrum scam, saying that if there was any misconduct, action had to be taken immediately and should not have waited for three years.
He said a leader must have the capacity to lead, pursue an agenda, lay down ethics and decide who does what. “If he fails to do so, the government of the day will be in a state of helplessness.”
Mr. Jaitley questioned the logic forwarded on the selection of the Telecom Minister saying that it had to be sole prerogative of the Prime Minister. He said the post-2009 period only reflected all the weaknesses of a coalition which could be corrected because they were self-inflicted, not because of factors inherent in coalition politics.
Similarly, he said, no decision had been firmed up on the GST because the States had not been taken on board and the government had failed to keep their interests in mind.
He alleged that the Centre would not approve an international airport for Uttar Pradesh, would not scuttle every second project in Orissa, and would not participate at a meet in Gujarat where 90 countries were present, all only due to discrimination.
Lokpal Bill
Mr. Jaitley said the entire Opposition was a spectator to the Lokpal Bill exercise and that they had not even seen the draft. He was aghast at the behaviour of the government given that the bill needed the approval of Parliament.
He said the initiative had to come from the government for consensus, and the idea of cooperative federalism floated by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee could be taken forward only if it was treated as a two-way process.
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