The Prime Minister?s job is not to talk up the market. It is, however, his and his Cabinet?s job to get on with solving policy problems that keep markets down. But what Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday promises very few action points on that score. Instead, by taking the CAG to task, he has opened a front that was just not needed. While the Prime Minister has underscored the need to steer away from suggesting facile solutions to the problems of corruption and black money that will lead to the re-emergence of the licence-control permit raj we have been dismantling since 1991, what he did not have to say was that it was his government?s reluctance to move ahead with reforms that has brought these issues centrestage. The tone of the entire introductory statement in his meeting with some editors was instead one of fault-finding that does very little to restore the image of the government. He painted a very accurate picture of the global problems that can be catastrophic for India. But what he missed out is that few of them have impacted more than domestic factors on the growth slowdown that India now faces.
The UPA government, until recently, sniped at road development, held back on disinvestment and even now is not committed on whether the insurance Bill will sail through Parliament. In these circumstances, if the Cassandras are out in full force, the government can hardly blame anyone else. Modernisation of infrastructure, education reforms and healthcare?the three priorities he identified?are held up not because of opposition from outside but due to problems of missing ministers. For instance, the Prime Minister?s talk just ahead of a legislative session gave no indication about which Bills or policies he expects his ministries to steer through Parliament. Since none of those figured in his chat with the editors on Wednesday, one can only hope Manmohan Singh will follow up this one with more such chats where he would have more to say on policy priorities. Until then, the clouds of uncertainty are unlikely to move away.
