Bikash
Choudhury
“Unleash the animal spirit of the economy” said the Prime
Minister a few weeks ago while temporarily looking after the Finance Ministry,
after the exit of Pranab Mukherjee. This Friday on 14th Sep. 2012 PM walk the talk while
clearing slew of majors by cabinet and cabinet committee on economic affairs; most
controversial among them was 51% FDI in multi brand retail. PM took such
drastic step of his own sweet will or under duress is not the matter of concern;
but, eventually he made up the mind of his Govt. on critical issues much
expected and against determined opposition was captured in his expression “ if
we were to go; must go fighting”. There should not be any illusion that recent
decisions of Govt. are good ones and expected to benefit the people over time.
Opposition to such move can be attributed to current and growing partisan
politics and respective vote banks. However, opposition is within its rights to
draw the attention of the Nation to corruption in Govt. which is in scale and
size never imagined before and UPA Govt. would remain answerable to people and
parliament. Senior people from opposition benches should know that certain
decision of Govt. can’t be deferred indefinitely without hurting the National
interest. People will welcome bold steps of Govt. more if it were matched with
improvement in Governance. The current state of economy is not only due to
macro economic mismanagement; but, on poor governance. Therefore, PM should now
burn some mid night oil to plan a face lift of his Govt. After 65 years of
independence our country has multiplied four times in terms of seer numbers
(120 crore population) and complexities actually no body accurately know. One
prime minister does not have actually time and scope to administer the country
properly; it would be appropriate to induct four Dy. Prime Minister to look
after the developments of states in four geographical regions apart from
looking after their respective ministries. It would be ideal if we could create
Dy. Prime Minister-Economy by grouping the ministries of
Finance, Industry & Commerce, Dy. Prime Minister-Infrastructure
by grouping the ministries of Road, Rail, Aviation & Shipping, Dy.
Prime Minister-Energy by grouping the ministries of Power,
Petroleum, Renewable energy and Mining and Dy. Prime
Minister- Security by grouping the ministries of Home and Defense. This
would help the Prime Minster to take more strategic decisions while leaving the
day to day running of the Govt. to four senior colleagues while matching
individual ambitions with political expediency. There are many expected
benefits of such a system; this would facilitate appointment of younger Cabinet
Ministers under over all guidance of DPM, better inter ministerial
co-ordination and synergies while lifting the image of Govt. and delivery of
better Governance. Current UPA Govt. has very senior and experienced members in
the cabinet like Chidambaram, Pawar, Antony
and Farooq Abdullah who could be elevated as deputy prime minister. Though,
election is just two summers away Govt. should not shy away from taking hard
decisions in the larger interest of the Nation.
Twitter: @ideasofhope Blog: www.ideasofhopebikash.blogspot.com
E-mail:streben.market@gmail.com
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