I am not in the race for PMship, says Manmohan
Former Union finance minister
Manmohan Singh today reiterated that he is not
a candidate for the post of prime minister.
Addressing a news conference in Bombay, Dr Singh said in
reply to a question, "I am not a candidate for
any post."
Replying to another question as to why the Congress
party did not project a prime ministerial
candidate, he said the present election was being
contested not to project any face but on issues
like stability, economic development and secularism
and the need to check the rise of communal forces.
The party regarded the issues more important than faces.
He said the Congress had decided that it would elect its
parliamentary party leader as per normal democratic
process after the election. Denying that he was in the race
for the post, he said there was no dearth of leaders
in the party to fill the post.
When asked whether he considered Sonia Gandhi
possessed the qualities to become prime minister
and whether he shared the views of AICC president
Sitaram Kesri that she should take over the leadershilp
of the party, Dr Singh said Gandhi was the "tallest
leader of our party". It was evident from the massive
public response to her wherever she visited during the
electioneering for the party. She does possess all qualities
for the post. However, he repeated that the party
would follow the normal democratic process to elect its
leader after the election.
Singh said that India needed a
stable and experienced government at the Centre which
only the Congress can provide, in order to revive the sagging
economic and industrial climate in the country.
"The Bharatiya Janata Party
cannot provide such a mature government since
their national leaders are divided over various facets of
the economic liberation process."
He said the BJP leaders including their prime ministerial
candidate Atal Bihari Vajpayee were uncertain about the
definite policy measures with regards to foreign direct
investment into the country, opening up the financial markets
and external trade and entry of the foreign companies into the
country. "I am not criticising them, but they do not have
a common view on the economic and social policies and this will
create further confusion in future if the BJP forms the government
at the Centre," he observed.
It was only the Congress which had revived the nearly collapsing
Indian economy in 1991 and this time, more critical economic problems were being faced by the country mainly due to the
mismanagement of the economy by the United Front government
in the last 18 months which only the Congress could
address adequately, he said.
Dr Singh said that the 1991 economic problems were
somewhat different from the current problems mainly
because of various external factors such as the collapse
of the south-east Asian economic giants and their currencies.
"When we left the government in 1996, the economy was
booming with over 12 per cent industrial growth rate, 20 per
cent export growth rate and a decline of foreign debts
from 42 to 29 per cent."
However, in the last 18 months, the United Front mismanaged
the whole issue and could not even implement their
common minimum programme due to differences among the
constituent and alliance parties. Citing examples, he said
the UF government had confused themselves to address
the oil pricing issue adequately in time, withdrawal of
insurance regulatory authority bill, disputes over
Maruti-Suzuki ownership issue and regulatory authority
related to telecom industry, status of navratna autonomy
to public sector units and diluting the power of
disinvestment commission.
All these led to fall in national income to less then five
per cent, negative growth rate in agriculture,
industrial growth rate at less than five per cent, export
growth less than three per cent and the international
investors remained uncertain over the government
policy towards globalisation of the economy, he said.
In this context, he said the swadeshi concept of
the BJP would not solve the national problems since
the country needs foreign investment and a large chunk
of funds for various social and economic development
works like primary health, education, civic amenities and
infrastructure projects. The Congress party is committed
to industrial development and creation of wealth in the
country so that more funds can be utilised for poverty
alleviation programme.
Liberalisation is a continuous process and the Congress
party strongly believed that the economic reform
process should be sustainable and suitable to the
changing needs of the economy.
Elections '98
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