Kerala - Kochi   

Tharoor against war option

KOCHI: Author and former diplomat, Shashi Tharoor, says the Mumbai terror attack, which hurt India’s emerging-market image abroad, will add to the time taken by the economy to recover from the impact of the ongoing global recession.

Mr. Tharoor, in his Fedank Hormis memorial lecture on ‘The global financial crisis and India’s incomplete transformation’ here on Tuesday, said the terror attack would hit foreign investor confidence and slow foreign direct investment inflow.

This would stretch the recovery time required to put the economy back in shape.

The former U.N. undersecretary-general, however, said the impact of the global crisis would not be drastic on India’s economy.

For one, the exports value was only 13 per cent of the GDP; two, the share of foreign finance capital in the economy was marginal and three, the fundamentals of the economy were strong.

Mr. Tharoor, who lauded the political leadership’s response to the terror attack staying ‘calm, measured and focussed’ without going into a knee-jerk reaction, said the clamour for military action against Pakistan was dangerous.

Since both India and Pakistan were nuclear-armed, a war on Pakistan would lead to disaster for both nations.

He called for a war on the ‘daily terror’ of poverty of the crores of Indians, illiteracy and ill-health. The policies should be aimed at taking the benefits of the economic growth to the bottom one-fourth of the population. He suggested that a presidential form of governance would give an elected government sufficient elbow room to look after the economy better.

Pointing out that more than one-fifth of the MPs had criminal track records in the country, Mr. Tharoor asked the educated middle-class and professionals to take politics as a serious option.

The Fedbank Hormis lecture, currently into its 10th anniversary, is in honour of late K.P. Hormis, founder of Federal Bank.

M. Venugopalan, managing director of the bank, presided over the lecture.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

A centre to help overseas workers
Lending a sympathetic ear to the distressed
Sanskrit university to focus on research
Property expo
Survey of the physically challenged soon
Cashew Bhavan nearing completion
Construction worker falls to death, another injured
CBI for transfer of bail petitions
Black money: new law mooted
Chandy denies VS charge
‘Ban live telecast of terror combat’
J.B. Koshy to be Acting Chief Justice
City police seek NSG help to set up commando unit
Four held on criminal charges
Meet focuses on leisure boating
Best pavilion
Tharoor against war option
Prime Minister to open Naval Academy
Plea
In Kochi Today

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu