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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | PM focus on governance, not elections by Sankarshan Thakur

PM focus on governance, not elections by Sankarshan Thakur

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published Published on Jan 3, 2012   modified Modified on Jan 3, 2012

The discordant black-flag picket at the Golden Temple on New Year morning belied Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s clean-slate aspiration for 2012 but he is engaging in earnest with the challenges of what, in his own reckoning, will be another tough year.

The Lokpal tangle controversially unresolved, attention is likely to remain riveted on politics, especially with high-stakes battles for Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and three other states under way. The Prime Minister, however, is in step-back mode and keen to foreground economic and governance issues on his agenda.

Sources suggest he will be quite happy to be “left to focus on running government”, away from the hustle of electoral politics.

There is an uneasy sense in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) that too much time has either been taken away or lost to “political wrangling” in recent months and key tasks are lagging.

“The Prime Minister’s New Year message contained a warning for those who care to hear — we need to fast-track stalled reforms, revisit subsidy reduction, and streamline programme-delivery systems if we are to tide over the global economic downturn and meet domestic aspirations, that is what the Prime Minister is most keen on at the moment,” a source told The Telegraph.

Singh will, of course, hit the campaign trail over the next two months but his election engagements will only be intermittent. “Probably more than in the past, the Prime Minister will leave the party to handle the field in order to give himself more time at the office,” the source added.

The first progress reports on key tasks identified by the Prime Minister during a mid-term review last November are, in fact, currently being finalised by the office of his principal secretary, Pulok Chatterjee.

Among the “near-term” thrust areas identified by the Prime Minister in that meeting were addressing malnutrition, schemes for skill development training, health insurance coverage under the Rashtriya Swasthya Beema Yojana, progress on the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP) and follow-ups on the Sachar Committee’s recommendations on Muslims.

Chatterjee, who was brought back to the PMO last year, has been tasked with monitoring monthly progress in these areas with relevant ministries and briefing the Prime Minister by the second week of each month.

Chatterjee will also convey back directives from the Prime Minister to individual ministries each month. “All ministries concerned have been requested to give an update in terms of status, milestones and time lines for achievement of targeted indicators, difficulties and any other developments which require co-ordination by the Prime Minister’s Office,” the source said.

The government’s failure to push reforms-related legislation in Parliament has left the Prime Minister disappointed — and a little gloomy about the prospects of being able to effect key elements of second-generation reforms. But he is keen to push measures that do not require legislative sanction and are “not subject to whimsical political cut and thrust”.

That is not to say though that he has given up on stalled reforms which he believes must be pushed if the economy is to grow and resist crises. As the Prime Minister said in his New Year message: “It would be wrong to conclude that India is now unshakeably set on a process of rapid growth. Our growth potential is indeed established. But there are many challenges we have to face if we want to maintain this growth in the years ahead, as indeed we must.”

Probably referring to the politically aborted effort to open FDI in retail, the Prime Minister had cautioned: “Some of the reforms needed for economic security attract controversy and cause nervousness. This is understandable, but we should learn from our past experience with reforms. Things that we take for granted today caused similar controversy twenty years ago. We should remember that change is necessary for development and while we must anticipate change, and even protect the most vulnerable from ill effects, we should not lock ourselves into a blind refusal to contemplate change.”

The Telegraph, 3 January, 2012, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120103/jsp/nation/story_14955782.jsp


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