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BJP against slashing farm subsidies

The Bharatiya Janata Party is fiercely opposed to any attempt to slash existing subsidies to the farm sector, former finance ministers Jaswant Singh said on Friday.

Speaking at a special session on the economic agenda of major political parties at the Confederation of Indian Industry's partnership summit in Madras, Singh said the BJP, if voted to power at the Centre, would ensure efficient functioning of welfare schemes like farm subsidies.

"We cannot afford to follow fashionable cliches. Even Western countries like the United States and France are keen on ensuring farm subsidies,'' he pointed out.

Union Industries Minister Murasoli Maran and former Union minister Rajesh Pilot, who presented the agenda of the United Front and the Congress, agreed with Singh that the economic reforms would have to continue.

Singh took exception to Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral's remark at the summit yesterday that political instability would not affect the pace of the reforms.

Criticising the United Front government for not speeding up the reforms initiated by the Congress in 1991, Pilot said, ''Despite this, we tolerated them for 18 months by offering support''.

Refuting the allegation that the foreign direct investment flowing into the country was mainly in the consumer sector, Maran said 70 per cent of the FDI was in the power sector. Only 11 per cent of the FDI was in the consumer sector, 79 per cent of which was in the fields of food-processing, passenger cars and consumer electronics.

"We need the FDI for making computer chips or potato chips, as long as it brings us more jobs," he asserted.

All the three leaders felt that the public sector units in strategic sectors could not be disinvested. However, the country needed more FDI in core sector projects like power plants which was now limited to 74 per cent, they said.

The three leaders also agreed on ensuring protection for domestic industry whenever necessary. While Singh said it was necessary to instil a sense of pride in the small scale sector by changing its nomenclature, Maran said a new category of medium scale sector was waiting to be defined.

Singh said the BJP wanted a single regulatory authority to be set up for the telecom, television and computer sectors.

Asked whether foreign investors would be allowed to take over sick public sector undertakings and other industries, Singh said the BJP was keen on reformulating the policy to revive the sick units.

Maran agreed with Singh's comment that the Bureau for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction was making sick industries sicker. "This is why we want to amend the law to ensure diagnosis of a unit before it turns sick. The next Parliament hopefully will enact the law," he added.

UNI

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