Opposition dubs economic reforms anti-people

New Delhi, Dec 6: Opposition parties on Thursday dubbed the government’s economic reforms as anti-people and said privatisation of profit-making Navratna PSUs cannot be construed as reforms.

“Selling Navratna PSUs like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) is not reforms. Reforms should lead to job creation and empowerement of people,” Samajwadi Party leader and member of Parliament Amar Singh said at the 74th annual session of FICCI here.

No one, he said, was opposed to reforms, but economic reforms agenda should aim at providing level-playing field and equipping Indian industry to face competition. “India should become self-reliant and not look for exports for growth.” Congress party chief whip and member of Congress working committee Pranab Mukherjee took strong exception to finance minister Yashwant Sinha’s remarks on Wednesday that government was willing to spend more for reversing slowdown even at the risk of higher fiscal deficit, saying such policy was contrary to fiscal discipline.

“Economic policy should encourage saving and discourage dis-savings. Investment in infrastructure is necessary but what should be the trade-off and whether it is sustainable” is the question”, he said adding India’s economic security was dependent on level of self-reliance. Mr Mukherjee criticised Mr Sinha for taking refuge in comfortable foreign exchange reserves to justify economic slowdown and said rising revenue gap and huge fiscal deficit cannot bring economic security for the country.

— PTI