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“Politics not throwing up people with visionary zeal”

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday regretted that competitive politics in the country was not throwing up men and women of visionary zeal to turn India into a front-ranking nation.

“We have a political system where politicians are unable to evolve that long-term perspective. Competitive politics, governments change every five years and that we have elections in some States or the other all the time,” he said.

Observing that politicians concentrated on the electoral battle, he said, “the way competitive politics is played out, the political process does not throw up men and women of visionary zeal.”

Addressing IAS probationers, Dr. Singh said the country needed such men and women to emerge as one of the front-ranking countries in development and prosperity.

At the same time, the Prime Minister made it clear, it did not mean that politics was unimportant. He said politicians were in many ways “very close to the people.”

He paid glowing tributes to Sardar Patel, who, he said, recognised that the country needed an establishment and the All India Services had been given that “privileged role in our society.”

Dr. Singh told the young officers that if there had to be any bias, it had to be in favour of the underprivileged society, the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, the minorities, women and the disadvantaged children.

“These concerns cannot be left entirely to the market forces. I have often said markets are good servants and markets serve those who are part of the market system. But when millions ... live on the edges of subsistence, market signals have no meaning ... ,” he said. — PTI

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