Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the mounting campaign by the Opposition against his government could be part of a campaign to “destabilise our polity.”
“The issues on which the United Progressive Alliance government is now being judged date back to 2006 or so,” Dr. Singh told journalists on board his flight home from New York, “after which the people have voted in support of our performance. This is why I suspect that there is some other agenda at work.”
The Prime Minister declined to answer a question seeking elaboration on who might be responsible for the destabilisation.
Mounting furore
Dr. Singh was dismissive of the mounting furore at home over the 2G spectrum scandal, saying: “the Opposition is getting prematurely restless.” He was emphatic, though, that the government would survive its full term. “The government has a mandate from the people to govern for five years, and it will stay the course. The Opposition should be patient until the elections.”
He denied that there was a feud between Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P. Chidambaram over the 2G scandal. “The rift that you talk about is only in the media. This is a cohesive government. There is no dissension. There is no truth in what has been written in the media about a rift between Mr. Chidambaram and Mr. Mukherjee,” he said.
UPA policies successful
Dr. Singh argued that the United Progressive Alliance most politically-damaging failing — its failure to rein in inflation — was the consequence of international factors beyond its control. “Even China, with its successful economy, suffered a food inflation of 30 per cent in August,” he noted.
“Food prices,” he said, “are by and large stable. What is not stable is the price of vegetables, fish, eggs and so on. This is a sign, paradoxically, of the success of our policies.”
In spite of the global economic crisis, Dr. Singh said, India had registered between 6.7 per cent and 8.5 per cent growth. “Even in this troubled year,” he promised, “our growth rate will be between 7.8 and 8.5 per cent.” “We can do better if the government is allowed to do what should be its principal task, which is to push growth to 9 per cent.”
Pushing through a slew of legislation for this purpose, he added, needed Opposition cooperation.
Case for Kudankulam
Dr. Singh had special words of praise for Tamil Nadu, which he noted was now the fastest-industrialising State in the country. “I feel very proud when I go there,” he said. This achievement, though, could only be sustained if Tamil Nadu achieved energy independence — for which the Kudankulam project was necessary.
“It is my honest expectation that, sooner or later, the world will realise that there is no alternative to having atomic energy as part of the fuel mix of a country,” he said, “and I have no doubt that the leadership of Tamil Nadu will not be an exception.”
