The Bharatiya Janata Party's views on the current global financial crisis are in tune with that of the government, despite the evident friction between the ruling coalition and the main Opposition party in Parliament over the alleged corruption in the organisation of the Commonwealth Games and a host of other issues.
Hours after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee tried to pacify frayed nerves as the stock market began to plunge, the former Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha, almost echoed Mr. Mukherjee's words when he agreed that the Indian economy was “largely insulated” from the global financial turmoil that had resulted from downgrading of United States credit rating and the sovereign debt crisis in the Euro zone.
Conservative sector
“Our financial sector has been conservative and has a large component of public sector banks, which have given stability… We are not so exposed as Europe and the United States and less exposed than China,” said Mr. Sinha, adding that only a few sectors of the Indian economy that are dependent on exports were likely to be affected by the global mess.
The government could closely watch the international developments and “come with concrete steps for sectors likely to be affected.”
In favour of SDR
Mr. Sinha was of the view that it was time the world moved away from the U.S. dollar. He favoured the special drawing rights (SDRs) — the benchmark currency of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) — to replace the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency.
Mr. Sinha and Mr. Mukherjee seemed to be on the same page on this issue, although only a couple of days ago the BJP leader had charged the Finance Minister with mismanagement of the economy and his failure to check inflation.
