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Politicians stonewalling reforms: Shourie

Responding to the oft-repeated charge that the government lacks the political will to speed up economic reforms, Shourie told The Indian Express: "Political will is a much-abused term because it refers to just the government in residence. The lack of political will syndrome applies to the entire political class."

"People talk of China, but China executes 12 people a day. We can't even prosecute someone for power theft," Shourie said.

"Fifty-three per cent of PDS (public distribution system) grain in Delhi gets stolen, the power loss in east Delhi is 55 per cent - all this goes on under our very nose but we can't do anything."

Shourie's comments follow a heated debate in Parliament during which opposition Members of Parliament pointed out that China and even tiny Vietnam were getting much more foreign investment than India.

"China has no trade unions in special economic zones, workers who work eight-hour shifts promise to work for 12 hours if need be at the same wages, and you have hire and fire. If the MPs agree to this, India will overtake China," Shourie said.

The minister blamed all political groups, including his own Bharatiya Janata Party, for stonewalling the few reform measures that have been ventured.

"Losses of state electricity boards are up Rs 220 billion (Rs 22,000 crores) today compared to Rs 40 billion (Rs 4,000 crores) a decade ago."

"But what happens when a Chandrababu Naidu (chief minister of Andhra Pradesh) tries to hike power rates - the BJP and the Congress oppose him."

"People talk of Vietnam's success - do you know that 16 per cent of all foreign investment in Vietnam since 1988 is in agriculture? Will we allow this?" the minister asked.

"Vietnam has a tax rate of 35 to 42 per cent for domestic firms but brings this down to 10 per cent for firms with foreign investment. However, if you invest your repatriable profit back in Vietnam, you get full tax rebate."

"If our MPs, and I reiterate that includes us in the BJP, were to allow this, we'll make India like China in an instant," Shourie said.

"In India, industrial users pay 2.5 times what householders do for electricity? In industrialised countries, they pay half what households do. That's why industry can produce so efficiently abroad," he pointed out.

"We all know that China's agricultural productivity is much higher than ours, but do we know that almost all cotton in China is BT cotton (a genetically modified strain) from Monsanto? We've thrown out Monsanto."

Asked which leaders in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government were clearly pro-reform, Shourie named Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Home Minister L K Advani.

India embarked on the path of sweeping economic reforms in 1991, overturning four decades of quasi-socialist policies, when the Congress was in power. Shourie said there had been several positive developments in the economy since then.

"Poverty levels are down dramatically. We have $43 billion of reserves as against $750 million in 1991. The fact that we still have an industry despite import tariffs falling from 135 per cent to just 35 per cent over the decade shows just how resilient we are," he pointed out.

Indo-Asian News Service

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