PM Modi bats for bigger pvt role in economy

Wednesday 17th February 2021 05:07 EST
 
 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a strong pitch for a bigger role for the private sector in the economy, saying that slandering private enterprise was tantamount to distrusting the potential of youth and suspecting their intent. “Wealth creators are also important for the country, only then wealth can be distributed. How can wealth reach the poor, how can jobs be created?” the PM asked in a full-throated advocacy for expanding the role of the private sector in the economy.

“If the public sector is important, so is the participation of private enterprise. Should members of the IAS alone be tasked with everything? We have entrusted the IAS with running fertiliser factories and chemical enterprises? Then, they are supposed to fly planes as well. What type of capability have we acquired by handing over the country to babus. Babus belong to us and so do the youth. The more opportunity we give to our youth, the more he will benefit,” Modi said.

The remark came against the backdrop of the bold push for privatisation of PSUs in the budget and the allegations that the government planned to hand over PSUs to private players of its choice. How can we exclude private sector, asks Modi. If the budget marked the jettisoning of the timidity the political class has historically displayed about the widely acknowledged need to dispose of resource-guzzling and perenially loss-making public sector units, the PM's remarks during the debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address marked a full-scale embrace and unabashed celebration of private enterprise.

PM Narendra Modi took the accusations and suspicions head on. "How can we exclude the private sector? There may have been a time when governments slandered the private sector. The world has changed now, society and the country today have got the capability. How can we declare all of them dishonest? Doing so would have fetched votes in the past, but the world has changed now. Everybody has got potential and they all should get the opportunity. We should not declare them dishonest. This culture is not going to work now," he said.


comments powered by Disqus



to the free, weekly Asian Voice email newsletter