Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday sought to turn what was meant to be a threat to the government into an opportunity by striking a conciliatory tone. The Opposition had aimed to put him and the UPA in the dock over sticky inflation. By heaping praise on Yashwant Sinha for some of his wise decisions as finance minister in the NDA regime, Mukherjee buttressed his call for the Opposition?s cooperation in clearing some of the crucial economic Bills including Bills on pension, insurance and GST.

Later, the House adopted by voice-vote the motion asking the government to take immediate effective steps to check inflation and provide relief to common man.

Stressing the importance of making the investment climate friendly to national and international capital, Mukherjee said: ?There are differences between us, but we can overcome them collectively because we did not get an absolute majority. Our mandate has been to carry people with us.?

He said there was no need to link inflation with growth; instead, he said his effort was to bring down food inflation to 5%, from the current 8.03%. ?Food inflation was 22% in February 2010, now it?s 8.03%, which is also worrisome; 6-7% can be tolerated, but we feel it should stabilise around 5%,? he said. ?Every developing country has the problem of food inflation, and problems related to international oil prices,? he added.

Referring to Sinha?s contention that inept handling of the economy had led to price rise and flight of capital, he replied: ?Four important Bills are pending. The pension regulatory and development authority Bill, the Insurance Bill, the banking regulatory Bill and the GST Bill. In UPA-I, we were blocked by some of our allies on these Bills, the second time round, we ask for your help, since these Bills were your Bills to begin with to help them get cleared,? he said. ?Instead of magazine covers showing six top industrialists saying ?bye bye India? we can turn it around to read ?Hello India, tata world!? he said.

On Sinha?s quoting Oliver Cromwell?s famous remarks in the House of Commons in 1653 saying, ?Go, for God?s sake, go!? Mukherjee went back to history and said that Cromwell intimidated the House of Commons and appointed himself Lord

Proctor of England, which was against democracy.

?But his day ended, democracy was restored. Please remember we too are a democracy,? he said.

Mukherjee went to some lengths to explain the need to increase fuel prices, ending it by saying that only 10% farmers use diesel and therefore, raising diesel prices was rationalised.

Calling inflation a disconnect between demand and supply, he said while it was not possible to plug the gap in the short run, there were some long-term measures which had been undertaken including raising production of pulses and oil seeds and a second green revolution in eastern India. While nothing specific was mentioned, Mukherjee wound up his speech in a general feeling of bonhomie, calling Sinha a finance minister who ?he adored for having taken the tougher decisions with long-term payoffs.? While the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal abstained from voting by walking out. The Left parties, the TDP, the AIADMK and the Janata Dal (S) walked out after an amendment moved by Gurdas Dasgupta was defeated by 320 votes to 51 in favour. The motion, asking for immediate and effective steps to control price rise, was cleared by voice vote with support from the UPA and the NDA.