Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may have hailed the contribution of P.V. Narasimha Rao in his Independence Day address, but the latest editorial of the Congress mouthpiece has chosen to skip the late leader’s name while recalling PM’s reference to his predecessors.
The Prime Minister in his address “recalled the contributions made by stalwarts of our nation like Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi who played an important role in building the destiny of the nation appropriately during their time”, the Congress Sandesh editorial said. In his address, the Prime Minister had also spoken about Narasimha Rao.
“In 1991, under the leadership of Rao, we successfully negotiated a major economic crisis and embraced reforms for strengthening our economy. These reforms were opposed by many political parties at that time. But the reforms were in national interest and were therefore continued by all the governments that came to power,” Dr Singh had said.
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Bihar will gain very little: BJP
ANAND S.T. DAS
PATNA, SEP. 4
Keen on further weakening Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s perceived political manoeuvring on the ruling JD(U)’s special state status demand, the Opposition BJP’s Sushil Kumar Modi on Wednesday said the regional party’s claims that such status would give industrialisation in the state an instant impetus were misleading.
Presenting date about the benefits that other states with special status got in industrialisation over the past decades, Mr Modi said special state status in itself has no direct links with concessions and tax exemptions for investors and that the JD(U), by purportedly making claims to the contrary, was keeping Bihar’s people in the dark. “While Jammu and Kashmir got special state status in 1969, it got an industrial incentive package only in 2002 and that too for 10 years, which was extended for another five years. Himachal Pradesh, another state with special status granted way back in 1971, got such a package in 2003 for only seven years,” said Mr Modi to journalists.