Under attack over issues ranging from corruption to the severe economic crisis India now faces, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh struck back on Friday and took the Opposition to the cleaners for repeated disruptions in Parliament and for delaying much-needed reforms. After trying to soothe fears over the rapid fall of the rupee in the Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister changed avatar and got a lot more aggressive in the Upper House. Despite the apparently grim economic scenario, Dr Singh claimed there was “no reason for anybody to believe that we are going down the hill, and that 1991 is on the horizon.”
In a detailed statement made in both Houses, he emphatically declared that there would be no rollback in reforms and that the government had no plans to bring back capital controls, about which there had been a lot of speculation. He said: “The sudden decline in the exchange rate is certainly a shock, but we will address this through other measures, not through capital controls or reversing the process of reforms.”
This statement had a positive impact on the markets, with the rupee soaring by 85 paise to 65.70 against the dollar, and the BSE’s benchmark Sensex jumping by nearly 219 points to a two-week high. The PM also appealed to all sides for a political consensus to put the economy back on the path of high growth.
But angry at being relentlessly targeted by the BJP-led Opposition in “unparliamentary” language, Dr Singh came out all guns blazing. There were times earlier that the Opposition, led by the BJP, had walked into the Well of the House shouting slogans against him. On Friday, it was Dr Singh’s turn to hit back, and remind them of his stature.
Taking on the Opposition, he asked if anyone had heard of any other country where MPs walk to the Well of the House and make derogatory remarks against the PM. “Despite what some members may say, I do command a certain respect in the councils of the G-20,” the PM reminded members, and went on: “Have you heard of any parliamentary democracy where the Opposition does not allow the PM to (even) introduce his ministers?” While the treasury benches shouted “shame, shame”, the Prime Minister’s remarks led to a brief spat between him and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley. Not willing to let the PM’s criticism of the Opposition go unchallenged, Mr Jaitley retorted by reminding Dr Singh of the controversial circumstances of the confidence vote in July 2008. This was a reference to the time the Left parties had withdrawn support to the UPA-1 government led by Dr Singh over the Indo-US nuclear agreement. This immediately triggered an uproar.
But the Prime Minister was in no mood to be cowed down. He told the Opposition to allow Parliament to function if they were so concerned about India’s economy. “Parliament is the supreme body in the country, and is not allowed to function session after session,” he said. Then came the sting: “I am glad the principal Opposition recognises the need for consensus in the House. But building consensus is the responsibility of both the government and the principal Opposition. But their conduct in the House has been different. The Opposition could never reconcile to the fact that it was voted out of power in 2004 and 2009.” This again led to an uproar, with BJP members protesting against the remarks. It was Mani Shankar Aiyar (Congress), joined by other treasury bench members, who vociferously countered the Opposition attack. Asking the BJP to allow the PM to speak, finance minister P. Chidambaram also stood up and reminded the BJP members that the Leader of the Opposition, who had made political remarks, had also been allowed to speak.
As the Prime Minister was speaking, some members demanded to know about the missing files on coal block allocations. The Supreme Court has been breathing down the neck of both the government and the CBI over the mystery of the missing files, and has given a deadline of two weeks within which the files should be tracked. The Opposition has also been demanding a statement from the PM on the files. Dr Singh responded by saying: “I am not the custodian of the files.” At this, BJP MP Prakash Javdekar quipped: “Then who is responsible?” With the PM absolving himself and his office on the controversy of missing files, the onus now falls directly on the coal minister, Sriprakash Jaiswal.
The Prime Minister reminded the Rajya Sabha that “corruption is there, has been there”. Saying that while corruption was “regrettable”, he noted that it had been exposed in recent years due to RTI and the activism of various government agencies. He then added: “Let the guilty be booked. Our government has no desire to protect the guilty.” When the Upper House was adjourned after the PM’s statement, BJP member Ravi Shankar Prasad said they were dissatisfied with the statement and were walking out. The House was, however, adjourned immediately.
In Lok Sabha, reading out from a written statement, he said that even as the rupee’s fall was “certainly a shock”, the government would not go back on reforms. The PM also said the current account deficit was “unsustainably large” and to remedy this there had to be a reduction in demand for gold and oil imports. “Clearly we need to reduce our appetite for gold, economise on the use of petroleum products and take steps to increase imports,” he said. “Growth has slowed in recent quarters. I expect growth in the first quarter of 2013-14 to be relatively flat, but as the effects of a good monsoon kick in, I expect it to pick up,” Dr Singh added.